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Erschienen in:

2018 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

1. Cigarettes and High Heels: The Universe of Signs

verfasst von : Marcel Danesi

Erschienen in: Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US

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Abstract

Using cigarettes and high heels as examples of signs, and how they deliver cultural meanings through their shape and functions, this chapter is a general introduction to semiotics—what it is, what makes it distinct, and what its goals are. The connection of smoking to courtship rituals and the wearing of high heels as part of the romance game provide a concrete introduction to the idea that all human behavior is guided by sign structures and meanings of all kinds. The chapter introduces the two main models of the sign—the binary one associated with Ferdinand de Saussure and the triadic one associated with Charles Peirce. A schematic overview of the origins and development of semiotics as a distinct science is provided in order to set a background to the discussions that will follow. The chapter ends introducing basic principles of semiotics, including the notion that common sense is communal sense, and that cultures are built on the latter.

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Nächstes Kapitel What Does It Mean?: How Humans Represent the World

Jason Hughes, Learning to smoke: Tobacco use in the West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 19.

Source: World tobacco market report, Euromonitor International (Chicago, 2017).

Margaret Leroy, Some girls do: Why women do and don’t make the first move (London: Harper Collins, 1997).

Jordan Goodman, Tobacco in history: The cultures of dependence (London: Routledge, 1993).

Richard Klein, Cigarettes are sublime (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993).

Michael E. Starr, “The Marlboro man: Cigarette smoking and masculinity in America,” Journal of Popular Culture 17 (1984): 45–56.

Tara Parker-Pope, Cigarettes: Anatomy of an industry from seed to smoke (New York: The New Press, 2001), 168.

According to the 1995 report of the Center for Tobacco Free Kids, nearly 35 percent of teenagers are smokers, many of whom started smoking around 13 years of age. Similar statistics were published in the late 1990s and the first part of the 2000s. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) reported in 2002 that anti-smoking ads, for example, did little to deter smoking among teens, highlighting the fact that the anti-smoking media campaigns of governments and concerned citizen groups have little effect—1 in 3 still smoke, a percentage that has not changed much since adolescents started smoking en masse in the 1950s. The situation is bound to change, however, as the meanings of smoking will change. I have started to notice that teenagers themselves are now finding smoking to be less and less attractive socially.

The original research was published in Cool : The signs and meanings of adolescence (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994). In a follow-up project I discovered that not much had changed in virtually two decades after the original project. It would seem that in some matters of human behavior, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, as the French expression goes (“The more it changes, the more it is the same”). Those findings were published in My son is an alien : A cultural portrait of today’s youth (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).

Hughes, Learning to Smoke, p. 121.

Charles Peirce’s main semiotic ideas can be found scattered in the Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, Vols. 1–8, C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss (eds.) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931–1958).

William Rossi, The sex lives of the foot and shoe (New York: Dutton, 1976).

Valerie Steele, Fetish: Fashion, sex, and power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).

Erving Goffman, The presentation of self in everyday life (Garden City, Conn.: Doubleday, 1959).

Lillian Glass, He says, she says (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992), 46–8.

Desmond Morris, The human zoo (London: Cape, 1969).

Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de linguistique générale (Paris: Payot, 1916).

John Deely, Four ages of understanding: The first postmodern survey of philosophy from ancient times to the turn of the twentieth century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001).

Umberto Eco, A theory of semiotics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976).

Susan Sontag, Illness as metaphor (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1978), 7.

Jacalyn Duffin, Disease concepts in history (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).

Danesi, Marcel. 1994. Cool: The signs and meanings of adolescence. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRef

———. 2003. My son is an alien: A cultural portrait of today’s youth. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Deely, John. 2001. Four ages of understanding: The first postmodern survey of philosophy from ancient times to the turn of the twentieth century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRef

Duffin, Jacalyn. 2005. Disease concepts in history. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Eco, Umberto. 1976. A theory of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.CrossRef

Glass, Lillian. 1992. He says, she says. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Goffman, Erving. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City: Doubleday.

Goodman, Jordan. 1993. Tobacco in history: The cultures of dependence. London: Routledge.

Hughes, Jason. 2003. Learning to smoke: Tobacco use in the West. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Klein, Richard. 1993. Cigarettes are sublime. Durham: Duke University Press.

Leroy, Margaret. 1997. Some girls do: Why women do and don’t make the first move. London: Harper Collins.

Morris, Desmond. 1969. The human zoo. London: Cape.

Parker-Pope, Tara. 2001. Cigarettes: Anatomy of an industry from seed to smoke. New York: The New Press.

Peirce, Charles. 1931–1958. Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vols. 1–8, ed. C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Rossi, William. 1976. The sex lives of the foot and shoe. New York: Dutton.

Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1916. Cours de linguistique générale. Paris: Payot.

Sontag, Susan. 1978. Illness as metaphor. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Starr, Michael E. 1984. The Marlboro man: Cigarette smoking and masculinity in America. Journal of Popular Culture 17: 45–56.CrossRef

Steele, Valerie. 1996. Fetish: Fashion, sex, and power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Titel: Cigarettes and High Heels: The Universe of Signs
verfasst von: Marcel Danesi
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US
Buch: Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95347-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-349-95348-6

Copyright-Jahr: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95348-6_1