Transcript Cultural Semiotics

Cultural Semiotics
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Overview
1. What is culture?
Discussion of different views of culture
Approaching ‘Cultural Semiotics’
2. Course orientation
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4.
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Topics
Organization
Assignments
Resources
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What is culture?
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Culture: two views
1. Artistic and intellectual achievement
e.g. Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), Culture and Anarchy
(1869)
2. A distinct way of life
e.g. Edward B. Tylor (1832-1917), Primitive Culture
(1871)
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1. Artistic and intellectual activity
Culture is:
– “a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting
to know […] the best which has been thought and
said in the world, and [thereby] turning a stream of
fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and
habits” (Arnold 5)
– “the study and pursuit of perfection [in the qualities of]
beauty and intelligence” (Arnold 48-49)
– “an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not […]
and outward set of circumstances” (Arnold 33)
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2. A distinct way of life
“Culture, or civilization, […] is that complex
whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, customs, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of society”
(Tylor, quoted in Kroeber and Kluckhohn 81)
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What is common to both views?
• Culture as something acquired (by striving or
learning)
• Culture related to social organization and
change (as a solution to social problems or a
product of social evolution)
• Culture as an abstraction from material objects
and practices: a mental quality (pursuit or
capability)
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What distinguishes the two views?
• Exclusive (the best) vs. inclusive (any other)
• Challenging society (fresh and free thought) vs.
reflecting society (customs, habits)
• Individual (inward condition) vs. collective (as a
member of society)
• Evaluative (pursuit of perfection) vs. descriptive
(complex whole)
• Absolute (in the world) vs. relative (society)
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History of the concept of culture
Raymond Williams, “Culture” in: Keywords: A
Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976):
– Latin origin: colere
– From cultivation of crops and rearing of animals to
active cultivation of human mind
– From concrete sense to abstract concept meaning
general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic
development (established in 18th c.)  ‘Arnold’
– 18th-c. Enlightenment critique of European norms and
standards, introducing plural of ‘cultures’  ‘Tylor’
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A critical concept
A critical intention is at work in both views of
culture:
– Pursuit of beauty and intelligence critical of notions
and habits of an industrial society
– Study of culture as a complex whole critical of
reduction of culture to art and literature or to a single
standard
 An argument is embedded in both concepts
 Difficult dialogue: disciplinary boundaries
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Disciplinary boundaries
• Social Sciences, spec. Anthropology: the study
of the cultures of other (non-European) people,
traditionally working within Tylorean paradigm
 e.g. Kroeber and Kluckhohn, Culture: A Critical
Review of Concepts and Definitions (1952): 160 plus
definitions
• Humanities, spec. Arts & Literature: the study of
cultural achievement in European history,
traditionally working within Arnoldian paradigm
 e.g. the recent ‘culture wars’ in American higher
education and debates about ‘cultural literacy’
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Is there a dominant view of culture?
• What is yours?
• Williams in 1976:
culture referring to “the works and practices of
intellectual and especially artistic activity […] the
most widespread use” (90)
 Is this still the case?
• Williams in 1981:
noting convergence of the two views based on
the notion of a ‘signifying system’
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Culture as signifying system
Thus there is some practical convergence between (i) the
anthropological and the sociological senses of culture as a distinct
“whole way of life”, within which, now, a distinctive “signifying
system” is seen not only as essential but as essentially involved in
all forms of social activity, and (ii) the more specialized if also more
common sense of culture as “artistic and intellectual activities”,
though these, because of the emphasis on a general signifying
system, are now much more broadly defined, to include not only the
traditional arts and forms of intellectual production but also all the
“signifying practices” – from language through the arts and
philosophy to journalism, fashion and advertising – which now
constitute this complex and necessarily extended field.
(Williams, Culture 13)
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Cultural semiotics
• Study of culture as a signifying system,
constituted by signifying practices
 production and organization of meaning through the
use of signs
• Impact of Structuralism on traditional disciplines:
 Structuralism “conceives any cultural phenomenon,
activity, or product (including literature) to be a social
institution, or ‘signifying system,’ consisting of a selfsufficient and self-determining structure of
interrelationships”
(M.H. Abrams, Glossary of Literary Terms, 242)
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A young discipline
• Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952):
 only one of 164 definitions of culture mentions the
word ‘sign’; reference to ‘symbols’ found to be rare in
anthropological definitions
• Roland Barthes, Mythologies (1957):
 literary scholar applying structuralist method to critical
analysis of everyday culture
• Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology
(1958):
 anthropologist applying structuralist method to
analysis of non-European cultures
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Cultural semiotics: trans-discipline?
A science and a critical method
– Developing theories, models and standardized
methodological tools to understand the production,
organization and transformation of meaning
– An interdisciplinary science linking study of signs with
insights from various fields of inquiry such as
cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis, anthropology,
archeology, linguistics, etc. (Danesi & Perron 55)
– A critical method, derived from literary analysis,
assessing the work of the imagination in the context
of social relations
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Course orientation
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Topics
Organization
Assignments
Resources
 See handout
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Topics
1. The concept of culture; introduction to
semiotics; culture as signifying system
2. Advertising as cultural discourse; the image as
sign
3. The body as signifying object/agent
4. The semiotics of space; spatial practices
5. The meanings of food, eating and cooking
6. Intercultural communication, transculturation
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Organization
• Lecture: concepts, contexts, issues
• Discussion: focus on text from reader
– 2 to 3 students to spark discussion by e-mail:
send observations, ideas and questions to class
before meeting
– 2 to 3 students to post feedback by e-mail:
send observations, insights, ideas for further
consideration to class before next meeting
• Illustrations welcome
 bring your own examples for analysis and discussion
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Assignments
Two essays:
1. One shorter essay (approx. 1,500 words)
A critical discussion of the argument of one of the texts
in the reader, assessing its claims with reference to
evidence taken from direct observation and/or reading
 due October 31, 2007
2. One longer essay (approx. 2,500 words)
A critical semiotic analysis of a selected aspect of Hong
Kong culture – you may choose your own topic, but
suggestions are provided (see handout)
 due December 14, 2007
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Resources
• Course reader
• Course web page:
http://www.hku.hk/english/maprogs/6056.htm
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Lecture presentations
Textbooks and anthologies
Suggestions for further reading
Writing resources
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Sources (What is culture?)
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Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 5th ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston, 1988.
Arnold, Matthew. Culture and Anarchy. 1869. Ed. Samuel Lipman. New Haven: Yale
UP, 1994.
Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. New York: Hill and Wang,
1972.
Danesi, Marcel, and Paul Perron. Analyzing Cultures: An Introduction and Handbook.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1999.
Graff, Gerald. Beyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize
American Education. New York: Norton, 1992.
Kroeber, A. L., and Clyde Kluckhohn. 1952. Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts
and Definitions. New York: Vintage, 1963.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Trans. Claire Jacobson and Brooke
Grundfest Schoepf. New York: Basic Books, 1963.
Tylor, Edward B. Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology,
Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom. 2nd ed. London: J. Murray, 1873.
Williams, Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London:
Fontana, 1976.
---. Culture. London: Fontana, 1981.
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