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Book 2019.0

Structural Units of Mass Culture Mythology

Lyudmyla Zaporozhtseva

Edition: 1 edition

Social Tartu University Press 9789949032150 Available

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Other title information: A Cultural Semiotic Approach

Annotation: My dissertation focuses on the study of myths and their semiotic mechanisms that appear in contemporary mass culture texts. Although myths and mass culture as a whole have been widely discussed from the perspectives of various disciplines, there are no studies that deal with the systematization of mass culture mythology and the semiotic definition of mythic markers. The topic of this dissertation is interesting not only from a general theoretical, philosophical, anthropological and semiotic perspective, but also for practical reasons. I believe that I can convincingly show in my work that the study and identification of semiotic mechanisms of mass culture myths is applicable in the field of marketing semiotics and social communication. In my dissertation, I first compare mass culture mythology from a sociological, philosophical-anthropological and semiotic perspective. This allows me to combine the two main epistemological approaches to myth research and treat myth as a holistic meta-concept on the one hand, and approach myth as a cultural text on the other. Based on the framework I have created, I will analyze various texts of mass culture in my work and focus on identifying the most common and enduring structural units of mass culture mythology. How do I define a smaller unit of myth? In defining it, I will rely on two structural principles of myth: the emic unit, which I denote by the concept of mythologeme, and the hybrid unit, which I denote by the concept of mytheme. In the course of the analysis, I will highlight the following mythologemes: Fate, Journey, Universality, Catastrophe, Golden Age and Mother Nature, and the mythemes: Transformation and Return. In addition to distinguishing the aforementioned mythologemes and mythemes, I will highlight their value and function in mythological discourse. Fate and Journey help to integrate the life of the individual into the whole. The mythologeme of Mother Nature is associated with the existential need of a person to search for authenticity and identity. The mythologemes of the Universe, Catastrophe and Golden Age constitute the human time-spatial past-present-future triad. The latter are related to human questions about the origin of the world, nostalgia for the past and fears about the future. The mythologeme of Transformation points to the idea of miracle and the mythologeme of Return to the time-spatial axis of the human semiosphere, to orderliness. The last chapter of the work applies the theoretical framework developed in the dissertation to specific case studies. The first of them is dedicated to the analysis of the TV political marketing of the Ukrainian politician Darth Vader, and there I show how archetypal mythological meanings were included in the structure of the political narrative. The second case study focuses on the development of a specific brand, which I did in collaboration with the well-known Russian pop artist Manizha, and where I apply the mythologeme of Mother Nature.Further research into mythologemes and mythemes could open up new semiotic markers and thereby expand the field of application of semiotics, as well as help to better understand the mythological basis of culture. This dissertation presents a semiotic study of myth revealing in contemporary mass cultural texts and exploration of its inner semiotic machinery. Although a variety of studies have been devoted to myth, and quite a few studies have tackled mass culture issues, less attention has been given to the systematic articulation of mass cultural mythology and its markers, which reveal its inner semiotic machinery. Those issues are relevant not only from a general theoretical philosophical, anthropological, and semiotic point of view, but also have concrete applicability in marketing semiotics and social communications. Firstly, I discuss mass culture under an emancipatory umbrella approach and explore mass culture mythology from the sociological, philosophical-anthropological and semiotic perspectives. Secondly, I combine two main epistemological attitudes of myth and integrate a holistic object of research – which appears as a meta-concept – from one side, and a text of culture – mass cultural narratives around brands conveying their main values – from the other side . Thirdly, I discuss the smallest units of mass culture mythology and explore its most widespread structural units. I classify the smallest units of myth by their structural principles: the emic units (mythologemes) and the hybrid ones (mythemes). There are the mythologemes of Fate, Course, Universe, Catastrophe, Golden Age, and Mother Nature, and the mythemes of Transformation and Backtracking considered in detail. The main existential values of those smallest mythological units are discussed. The mythologemes of Fate and Course help to understand individual life as a part of an integral whole. The mythologeme of Mother Nature relates to the existential search for inner authenticity and identity. The mythologemes of Universe, Catastrophe, and Golden Age constitute an integral triadic idea about time and space (past-present-future) and reflect the human existential quest for an explanation of the world origin, nostalgia for the past and fears about the future. The mytheme of Transformation represents the idea of mythological miracle, and the mytheme of Backtracking appeals to the idea of a mastered time and space. Fourthly, I extend the process to find more minimal units of myth in cultural texts of different genres. The first case is dedicated to close analysis of the television communication of the Ukrainian politician Darth Vader. This case demonstrates the combination of archaic meanings and contemporary forms of myth within a narrative, producing new powerful connotations. The second case applies the Mother Nature mythologeme as a branding tool for building a coherent image of a musical artist. The further exploration of the mythologemes and mythemes and articulation of other semiotic markers of myth systematically enriches a profound understanding of human mind and culture.

Identifier: 9789949032150

Status: Available

Book 2010.0

Semiosis and Catastrophes

edited by Wolfgang Wildgen and Paer Aage Brandt

Edition: 1 edition

Linguistics Peter Lang Publishing 9783034304672 Available

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Other title information: René Thom’s Semiotic Heritage

Annotation: The central concern of this volume is semiogenesis, i.e. the evolution and differentiation of meaningful («pregnant») forms in the field of symbolic systems – from bio-communication to language and cultural forms like music, art, architecture or urban forms. The basic questions are: How are meanings created and further differentiated? Where do they come from? What kind of forces drive their unfolding? How can complex cultural forms be understood based on simple morphodynamic principles? Applications concern the perception of forms by animals and humans, the categorization of forms e.g. in a lexicon, and predication or other complex symbolic behaviors which show up in grammar or in cultural artifacts like the unfolding of urban centers.

Identifier: 9783034304672

Status: Available

Proceedings Paper 1997

The semiotics of catastrophe in linguistic change

Edna Andrews

In: Synthesis in Diversity, Volume 1

Pages: 179-182

Semiotics Around the World

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Structural Units of Mass Culture Mythology

Semiosis and Catastrophes

The semiotics of catastrophe in linguistic change

Between definite and indefinite articles: The succinctness of signs (or the material field of dialectic)

Hypothesis, reconstruction, analogy: On hermeneutics and the Interpretation of literature

On a fallacious semantic conception of Gottlob Frege

On the linguistic import of catastrophe theory

Review article

Roland Barthes: Modernity within history

The articulation of gender symmetry in Yuchi culture

The semiotic character of ‛with’

Compte rendu

Deconstructing Austin’s pragmatics: ‘An idle tea-table amusement’ (Russell) or an epistemological solution to the crisis of representation?

On the possibility of defining truth in natural language: A polemic with Alfred Tarski

Peirce and Turing: Comparisons and conjectures

Porphyre: Le regard sémiotique

Ritual or ritual? Dinnertime and Christmas among some ordinary American families

The organization of repair in the songs of gibbons

The semiotic square as a ’catastrophe’