If you want to understand how we find meaning in a story without just "guessing" what the author felt, you have to look at the
Why do you know that a "dark and stormy night" in a novel suggests something bad is coming, but the same sentence in a weather report is just a fact?
If linguistics studies the system of language ( langue ), then a "Poetics" should study the system of literature. 2. "Literary Competence": How You Learned to Read
The word "Rose" (the sound/ink) is the signifier . The concept of a flower is the signified .