Semiotics of Culture 3700-KON6-CS
Students will learn about the advantages and limitations of the semiotic concept of culture, the theory of the sign and culture’s functioning as a semiotic system, the typology of cultures together with historical examples, the skills needed to analyse films, photography and its role in today’s culture. Developing the ability to analyse and interpret cultural events. Learning about the methods of analysing culture proposed by Lotman, Meletinsky, Eco, and other researchers.
Semiotics of culture, semiotics of art – traditions, history, variations, representatives. Semiotics versus semiology.
1. Basic concepts: signs and their types. De Saussure and Peirce as founders of modern studies on signs.
2. Language sign and iconic sign. Typology of signs, principles of classification. Icons, indexes, symbols.
3. A sign according to the Tartu-Moscow school. Signs of language and signs in art. The arbitrariness and motivation of signs depending on the type of communication.
4. Basic concepts of semiotics of art: message, statement, system, code, communication, text, discourse, world model, culture as a set of texts or rules.
5. Text as a category of describing phenomena of culture expressed in diverse semiotic material. The concept of a frame and point of view.
6. Evolution of the understanding of culture in the Tartu-Moscow school; culture as a set of texts or rules vs. culture as social memory. The brain and culture.
7. Semiotics of folklore. Basic indicators of folklore texts.
8. Myths as a way of thinking and understanding the world (Freidenberg)
9. Myths as the language of proper names (Uspensky, Lotman).
10. Myths as narrative (Meletinsky, Eliade).
11. The poetics of myths and their role in today’s culture and arts (literature, film, theatre in the 20th century).
12. Semiotics and history. History as a system of communication.
13. The tsar and God as a category of culture in 17th-century Ruthenia.
14. Anti-behaviour as a phenomenon of early culture and similar phenomena in today’s culture.
15. History and its record. Words, statements in relation to the times and towards an event.
16. History as a series of events and history as a narrative. How do you write history?
17. The role of coincidence and necessity in history. A semiotic approach.
18. History and myths. The past and identity.
19. Facts, recording and interpretation in the process of describing history.
20. The poetics of historical writing according to Hayden White.
21. Semiotics of religion.
22. Images as a communication.
23. Semiotics of film.
24. Semiotics of drawings.
25. Semiotics of mass culture.
26. Semiological aspects of photography and iconic representations.
27. Photographs as semiotic communications. The modelling function of a title.
28. New channels of communication and the future of books.
29. Liberature and the Internet as new cultural institutions.
30. The culture of common experience as the centre of contemporary culture.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes:
Knowledge:
- more in-depth knowledge on the types and specificity of disciplines involved in studies on culture;
- knowing and understanding the relationships among the different disciplines involved in studies on culture and other disciplines in the humanities and selected social sciences;
- more in-depth knowledge on language as the main expression and medium of culture, and being able to interpret texts of culture.
Skills:
- applying the main categories used to describe culture, such as text, sign, and being familiar with 20th-century concepts of culture;
- interpreting cultural events, early and contemporary texts in semiotic terms;
- using semiotic methodology as an interpretation tool.
Social competences:
- using the main search tools of cultural studies, taking part actively in discussions on cultural studies issues, and reacting to the views of others on these issues.
Assessment criteria
Continuous assessment (being prepared for class and active participation) 20%
Final oral test or oral exam 30%
Paper on one of the course topics 50%
Bibliography
Barthes R., Światło obrazu. Uwagi o fotografii. Warszawa 1995.
Barthes R.., Dyskurs historii. Pamiętnik Literacki 1984, z. 3.
Bogatyriew P., Semiotyka kultury ludowej. Warszawa 1978. Tu rozprawy:
Przyczynek do etnografii strukturalnej
Znaki teatralne
Folklor jako swoista forma twórczości
O wzajemnych związkach dwóch bliskich systemów semiotycznych
Pisanie miasta, czytanie miasta. Pod red. A. Zeidler-Janiszewskiej. Poznań 1997
Eco U., Superman w literaturze masowej. Warszawa 1998
Eco, U Nowe środki masowego przekazu a przyszłość książki. Warszawa 1996.
Frejdenberg O., Metafora (maszynopis powielony lub „Pamiętnik Literacki 1983, z.2) oraz O. Frejdenberg, O., Mif i lieratura drevnosti. Moskwa 1978, recenzja „Pamiętnik Literacki” 1981, z. 2.
Jakobson R., W poszukiwaniu istoty języka Wybór pism. Redakcja naukowa i wstęp M.R. Mayenowa Warszawa 1989, t. 1, t. 2. Tu rozprawy:
Język a inne systemy komunikacji
Kilka uwag o Peirce’ie poszukiwaczu dróg w nauce o języku
Metajęzyk jako problem językoznawczy
Semiotyka
Łotman J., O modelującym znaczeniu „końca” i „początku” W: Semiotyka kultury. Wybór i opracowanie E. Janus, M. R. Mayenowa. Warszawa 1977.
Łotman J., O semiotyce pojęć „wstyd” i „strach” w mechanizmie kultury. W: Semiotyka kultury. Wybór i opracowanie E. Janus, M. R. Mayenowa. Warszawa 1977.
Łotman J., Semiotyka filmu. Warszawa 1983.
Łotman J., Uspieński B., O semiotycznym mechanizmie kultury
Łotman, J.,O znaczeniach we wtórnych systemach modelujących. „Pamiętnik Literacki” 1969, z. 1.
Mieletinski E., Poetyka mitu. Warszawa 1981.
Semiotyka kultury. Wybór i opracowanie E. Janus, M. R. Mayenowa. Warszawa 1977.
Toporow W., Miasto i mit Gdańsk 2000.
Uspieński B., Historia i semiotyka. Gdańsk 1998.
Uspieński B., O systemie przekazu obrazu w rosyjskim malarstwie ikon
Uspieński B., Strukturalna wspólnota rożnych rodzajów sztuki.
Wallace P., Psychologia Internetu. Poznań 2001.
White H., Poetyka pisarstwa historycznego. Kraków 1999.
Zalizniak A, Iwanow W., Toporow W., O możliwościach strukturalno-typologicznych badań semiotycznych. W: Semiotyka kultury. Wybór i opracowanie E. Janus, M. R. Mayenowa.
Additional information
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