George Andrews [\emph{Bull. Amer. Math. Soc.}, 2007, 561--573] introduced the idea of a \emph{signed partiton} of an integer; similar to an ordinary integer partitions, but where some of the parts could be negative. Further, Andrews reinterpreted the classical Göllnitz--Gordon partition identities in terms of signed partitions. In the present work, we provide interpretations of the sum sides of Rogers--Ramanujan type identities, including a new signed partition interpretation of the Göllnitz--Gordon identities, different from that of Andrews. Both analytic and bijective proofs are presented.