The Texture of Culture

Transcription

1 The Texture of Culture

2 Semiotics and Popular Culture S e r i e s E d i t o r : M a r c e l D a n e s i Written by leading figures in the interconnected fields of popular culture, media, and semiotic studies, the books in this series aim to show the contemporary relevance of cultural theory. Individual volumes offer an exercise in unraveling the socio-psychological reasons why certain cultural trends become popular. The series engages with theory and technical trends to expose the subject matter clearly, openly, and meaningfully. Marcel Danesi is Professor of Semiotics and Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Among his major publications are X-Rated! ; Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things ; Vico, Metaphor, and The Origins of Language ; Cool: The Signs and Meanings of Adolescence ; The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life ; and Brands. He is Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica, the leading journal in semiotics. T i t l e s : The Objects of Affection: Semiotics and Consumer Culture, by Arthur Asa Berger Media Literacy and Semiotics, by Elliot Gaines The Texture of Culture: An Introduction to Yuri Lotman s Semiotic Theory, by Aleksei Semenenko

3 The Texture of Culture An Introduction to Yuri Lotman s Semiotic Theory A l e k se i S e m e n e nk o

4 THE TEXTURE OF CULTURE Copyright Aleksei Semenenko, Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Semenenko, Aleksei. The texture of culture : an introduction to Yuri Lotman s semiotic theory / Aleksei Semenenko. p. cm. (Semiotics and popular culture) 1. Lotman, IU. M. (IUrii Mikhailovich), Criticism and interpretation. 2. Semiotics. 3. Culture Semiotic models. 4. Semiotics and literature. 5. Mass media. I. Title. P85.L68S dc A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: August 2012

5 Contents List of Figures and Tables Series Preface A ck n o w l e d g m e n t s Notes on Transliteration and Bibliography List of Abbreviations vii ix xi xiii xv I nt ro duc t ion 1 1 C onte x t s 7 2 Cu lt u re a s Sy s te m 23 3 Cu lt u re a s Te x t 75 4 S e m io sphere Un iver s a l M i nd 125 Conclusion: The World as a Text 145 Notes 147 References 157 Index 171

6 Figures and Tables Figures 1.1 Yuri Lotman s portrait by Peter Gullers TZS, or Semiotika Saussure s speech circuit Speech act by Roman Jakobson From thought to thought The reverse translation The Swedish speed limit sign The creative function of text The relation of text to culture The Poor Yorick icon [Hamlet] the sign Text as a condenser of semiosphere Communication in the semiosphere 118 Tables 1.1 Brief biography of Yuri Lotman Ty p olog y of c u lt u re s Hemispheric specializations 138

7 Series Preface P opular forms of entertainment have always existed. As he traveled the world, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote about earthy, amusing performances and songs that seemed odd to him, but which were certainly very popular with common folk. He saw these, however, as the exception to the rule of true culture. One wonders what Herodotus would think in today s media culture, where his exception has become the rule. Why is popular culture so popular? What is psychologically behind it? What is it? Why do we hate to love it and love to hate it? What has happened to so-called high culture? What are the meanings and social functions of current pop culture forms such as sitcoms, reality TV programs, YouTube sites, and the like? These are the kinds of questions that this series of books, written by experts and researchers in both popular culture studies and semiotics, will broach and discuss critically. Overall, they will attempt to decode the meanings inherent in spectacles, popular songs, coffee, video games, cars, fads, and other objects of contemporary pop culture. They will also take comprehensive glances at the relationship between culture and the human condition. Although written by scholars and intellectuals, each book will look beyond the many abstruse theories that have been put forward to explain popular culture, so as to penetrate its origins, evolution, and overall raison d être human life, exploring the psychic structures that it expresses and which make it so profoundly appealing, even to those who claim to hate it. Pop culture has been the driving force in guiding, or at least shaping, social evolution since the Roaring Twenties, triggering a broad debate about art, sex, and true culture that is still ongoing. This debate is a crucial one in today s global village where traditional canons of art and aesthetics are being challenged as never before in human history.

8 x Series Preface The books are written in clear language and style so that readers of all backgrounds can understand what is going in pop culture theory and semiotics, and, thus reflect upon current cultural trends. They have the dual function of introducing various disciplinary attitudes and research findings in a user-friendly fashion so that they can be used as texts in colleges and universities, while still appeal to the interested general reader. Ultimately, the goal of each book is to provide a part of a generic semiotic framework for understanding the world we live in and probably will live in for the foreseeable future. Marcel Danesi University of Toronto

9 Acknowledgments M ost of the material in this book has been used in lectures and seminars at Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. I am deeply grateful to Professors Lars Kleberg, Peter Alberg Jensen, Irina Sandomirskaja, and Lazar Fleishman, who have read and provided helpful comments on portions of the manuscript at various stages. I also wish to thank my students and colleagues from Stockholm, Tartu, Tallinn, and Venice and especially the participants of the 2011 Summer School of Semiotics, with whom I have had an opportunity to discuss the many topics addressed in this book. My thanks are due to Tatiana Kuzovkina and Olga Utgof at the Lotman Archive at Tallinn University and to Peter Gullers for his kind permission to use his photoportrait of Lotman. Last but not least, I express my gratitude to the Baltic Sea Foundation ( Östresjöstiftelsen ) and the Center for Baltic East European Studies at Södertörn University for financial support and friendly practical help.

10 Notes on Transliteration and Bibliography R ussian names are transliterated according to a simplified version of the Library of Congress (LOC) system, apart from internationally known names such as Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Bakhtin, Sergei Eisenstein, and others. By the same reasoning, in the text of the book Lotman s first name is given as Yuri (and not Iurii). In the bibliography, however, all Russian names are spelled according to the LOC transliteration system. In order to maintain the chronological order in the bibliography, the spelling of some names has been standardized (e.g., all of Tynianov s works are listed under Tynianov, not Tynjanov or Tynyanov); the references in the text, however, show the original spelling of the publication. When citing multivolume editions, volume number is indicated in Roman numerals followed by page number (e.g., Lotman , I.202). Charles S. Peirce s works are cited in the text traditionally as (volume.passage) according to the edition of Collected Papers (Peirce ). Shakespeare is cited according to W. J. Craig s Oxford edition (Shakespeare 1914) with the traditional indication of (act. scene.lines) in the text. All emphasis in citations is original, and all translations from Russian sources are mine unless otherwise indicated.

11 Abbreviations A I a r t i fi cial intelligence E O Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin T M S S Ta r t u-mo s c ow S e m iot ic S c ho ol T R SF Trudy po russkoi i slavianskoi fi lologii (Papers on Russian and Slavonic Philology) T Z S Trudy po znakovym sistemam (Si g n Sy s t e m s St ud ie s)