Communicating Culture

to structuralism and beyond

Symbols - Saussure

Synchronic v diachronic linguisticsLanguage v speechThe unit of study = the signSignifier and Signified

When a perceivable sound (a signifier) means something (a signified) to the people who perceive it, then the two together make up a sign.

What is a semiological system?

A semiological system is a closed system of signs.

Because the system is closed, part of the sign’s value comes from being not the values of the other signs in the system (Saussure’s negative meaning).

Symbols - Saussure

Why is this so important?Because it is arbitrary the sign is

totally subject to history and the combination at a particular moment of a given signifier and signifier is a contingent result of the historical process. (Culler, cited in Hall, 1997: 32)

Cotan, Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber c. 1602

Semiotics: the menuStarters:

Alba truffle, cepe duxelle, Soft poached hens egg white bean velouté Terrine of foie gras, Sauternes jelly Tempura of Whitby cod, pea purée, mint dressing

Mains:

Roasted squab pigeon, braised puy lentils, raviolo of wild mushrooms port jus Curry spiced loin of lamb finished with roasting juices and watermelon Fillet of Scotch beef, girolles, baby leeks, foie gras Pan-fried fillet of halibut, mussels, saffron cream sauce Roasted monkfish wrapped in Carpegna ham, clam minestrone Cavolo Nero, black olive

oil Curry spiced loin of lamb finished with roasting juices and watermelon

Desert

Melange of Ice Cream Apple Pie

Semiotics: fashion

Decoding the message

A B

Beyond structuralism

RepresentationThe ‘culture’ of signsFrom words/sentences to discourseFrom Saussure to Foucault

Researching cultureExperience & Observation

Writing cultureEthnography

Decoding the message

Decoding the message

Decoding the message

Decoding the message

RepresentationRepresentation is the production of

meaning through languageWe use signs organised into languages to

symbolise, stand for, or reference objects, people or events in the ‘real’ world

But language does not work like a mirror. Meaning is produced in language – in the various representational systems we call language.

We engage in meaning-producing practices which can be understood as the work of representation.

From Language to Discourse

Problems with the semiotic approach:Questions of representation are not limited

to grammar and vocabularyCulture is an interpretative system which

belies definitive, fixed meaningsRepresentation is about you and me – about

social knowledge. Semiotics ‘displaced the subject’.

Representation needs to focus on the issues of what we know when and where we know it (historical and contextual), as well as the relations of power that influence knowledge. … enter Foucault.

Discursive approaches to representation

FoucaultDiscoursePowerHistorySubjects

Foucault - Discourse Foucault’s study of discourses of madness included:

Statements about madness which give us knowledge about madness;

The rules which prescribe what is ‘sayable’ or ‘thinkable’ about madness;

Subjects who personify the discourses of madness, i.e. the ‘madman’;

The processes by which discourses of madness acquire authority and truth at a given historical moment;

The practices within institutions which deal with madness; The idea that different discourses about madness will

appear at late historical moments, producing new knowledge and a new discursive formation.

Barker, C. (2000) Cultural Studies. London Sage: 78-79

Foucault – the subject

Bodies are subject to the regulatory power of discourse

Through discourse bodies become subjects for themselves and for others

Hence Foucault can talk of subjectivity as formed within the subject positions of discourse.

Foucault – the subject‘[Foucault’s approach] suggests that

discourses themselves construct the subject-positions from which they become meaningful and have effects. Individuals may differ … but they will not be able to take meaning until they have been able to identify with those positions which the discourse constructs, subjected themselves to its rules, and hence become the subjects of its power/knowledge.

Hall (1997): 56

Summary from Hall

Reflective Intentional Constructionist

Cultural relativism Semiotics Discursive Practices

‘representation involves making meaning by forging links between three different orders of things: what we might broadly call the world of things, people events and experiences; the conceptual world – the mental concepts we carry around in our heads; and the signs, arranged into languages, which ‘stand for’ or communicate those concepts.’ (Hall 1997:61)