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Analyzing Cultures

An Introduction and Handbook

by Marcel DanesiPaul Perron

Analyzing Cultures provides what readers of semiotics, anthropology, communications, and media studies have long searched for: an intelligent and engaging introduction to semiotic analysis. Marcel Danesi and Paul Perron have written a unique primer that addresses the way culture is studied within a semiotic framework.


The authors give a concise, accessible overview of theories of signs in the history of philosophy and the social sciences. Principles of semiotic analysis are presented with vivid examples drawn from the world around us. Chapters are devoted to, among other things, the body and nonverbal communication; language acquisition, language in its social context, and how language shapes thought; cultural meanings of territories, spaces, and buildings; the importance of art to culture; cultural meanings of objects, artifacts, and technological processes; forms and cultural functions of narrative; and television and advertising media.


Analyzing Cultures is without peer as an introduction and reference for readers who want to understand the place of semiotics in the history of philosophy and the social sciences.

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Table of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Introductory Remarks
  • Part I: Basic Notions And Views
    • 1 What Is Culture?
      • 1.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 1.1 Theories and Views of Culture
      • 1.2 The Semiotic Perspective
      • 1.3 The Origins of Culture
      • 1.4 Defining Culture
      • 1.5 Society, Race, Civilization, Nation
      • 1.6 The Spheres of Culture
    • 2 The Field of Cultural Semiotics
      • 2.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 2.1 Theoretical Semiotics
      • 2.2 Saussure and Peirce
      • 2.3 Semiotics vs. Communication Science
      • 2.4 Semiotics vs. Cognitive Science
      • 2.5 Cultural Semiotics
      • 2.6 The Semiotic Investigation of Culture
    • 3 The Signifying Order
      • 3.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 3.1 Semiosis and Representation
      • 3.2 Modeling Systems
      • 3.3 The Sign
      • 3.4 Meaning
      • 3.5 Denotation, Connotation, Annotation
      • 3.6 Properties of Signification
      • 3.7 Structural Relations
      • 3.8 Codes and Texts
      • 3.9 The Dimensionality Principle
      • 3.10 Structural Effects
  • Part II: The Semiotic Study Of Culture
    • 4 The Body
      • 4.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 4.1 Nonverbal Semiosis and Communication
      • 4.2 Kinesic Codes
      • 4.3 Facial Codes
      • 4.4 Proxemic Codes
      • 4.5 Tactile Codes
      • 4.6 Gestural Codes
      • 4.7 Clothing as Extension of the Body
      • 4.8 Nudity
      • 4.9 Bodily Art: Dancing
    • 5 Language
      • 5.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 5.1 The Origins of Language
      • 5.2 Properties of Language
      • 5.3 Language and Thought
      • 5.4 Names
      • 5.5 Writing
      • 5.6 Discourse
      • 5.7 Verbal Art: Poetry
    • 6 Metaphor
      • 6.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 6.1 What Is Metaphor?
      • 6.2 Conceptual Metaphor
      • 6.3 Other Tropes
      • 6.4 Metaphor and Grammar
      • 6.5 Metaphor and the Signifying Order
    • 7 Space
      • 7.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 7.1 Shelters
      • 7.2 Maps
      • 7.3 Spatial Codes
      • 7.4 Public Spatial Codes
      • 7.5 Private Spatial Codes
      • 7.6 Sacred Spatial Codes
      • 7.7 Architectural Codes
    • 8 Art
      • 8.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 8.1 Theories of Art
      • 8.2 Theater
      • 8.3 Music
      • 8.4 Visual Art
      • 8.5 Cinema
      • 8.6 Postmodern Art
    • 9 Objects
      • 9.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 9.1 Objectification
      • 9.2 Dolls: A Case-in-Point
      • 9.3 Food
      • 9.4 Objectified Consciousness
      • 9.5 Objectified Art
    • 10 Narrative
      • 10.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 10.1 Narrative Representation
      • 10.2 Myth
      • 10.3 Mythologies
      • 10.4 The Novel
      • 10.5 The Comics
    • 11 Television and Advertising
      • 11.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 11.1 Television
      • 11.2 TV as Social Text
      • 11.3 The Medium is the Message
      • 11.4 Advertising
      • 11.5 The Messages in Ads
      • 11.6 The Effects of Media
  • Part III: A Practical Synthesis:
    • 12 Semiotic Analysis
      • 12.0 Preliminary Remarks
      • 12.1 The Semiotic Approach to Culture
      • 12.2 Macrosemiotic Analysis
      • 12.3 Microsemiotic Analysis
      • 12.4 Concluding Reflections
  • Activities and Questions for Discussion
  • Biographical Sketches
  • Glossary
  • Works Cited and General Bibliography
  • Index

Metadata

  • isbn
    978-0-253-05345-9
  • publisher
    Indiana University Press
  • publisher place
    Bloomington, Indiana USA
  • restrictions
    CC-BY-NC-ND
  • rights
    Copyright © Trustees of Indiana University
  • rights holder
    Indiana University Press
  • rights territory
    World
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