EeroTarasti SeinundSchein Eero Tarasti Sein und Schein | Explorations in Existential Semiotics ISBN978-1-61451-751-1 e-ISBN(PDF)978-1-61451-635-4 e-ISBN(EPUB)978-1-5015-0116-6 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData ACIPcatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenappliedforattheLibraryofCongress. BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie; detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de. ©2015WalterdeGruyterInc.,Berlin/Boston Coverimage:AlainBenainous/Gamma-Rapho/gettyimages Typesetting:PTP-Berlin,Protago-TEX-ProductionGmbH,Berlin Printingandbinding:CPIbooksGmbH,Leck ♾Printedonacid-freepaper PrintedinGermany www.degruyter.com Preface to Sein und Schein Ihavethefeelingthatthetitleofthisbook,onceconceivedinatalkwithAnke Beck,mypublisher,shouldindeedcorrespondtothecontents.Whatisnamely proposedhereisthatIstartwithratherphilosophicalreflectionsonwhatcould becalled‘ontologico-transcendental’issuesofexistentialsemiotics.Sothisiscer- tainly about ‘Being’. Yet, what follows is, chapter by chapter, more about ‘Ap- pearance’,i.e.,theempiricalworldinwhichwelive,fromculturalcasestudies toperformanceandevensuch‘lesserarts’asgastronomy. TheReadermayaskwhattheunifyingfactorbehindsuchdiversitythenis. Theansweris:thenewphaseoftheexistentialsemiotics,thisparadigmofsign studieswhichIlaunchedasearlyas2000,withthefirstmonographpublishedin EnglishbyIndianaUniversityPress.Itwasfollowedbyexpandedanddeepened versions in different languages in which the original theory was elaborated on in many directions. These were Fondements de la sémiotique existentielle 2009 (Paris:L’Harmattan)andFondamentidisemioticaesistenziale2009(Roma,Bari: GiuseppeLaterza);moreover,theyalsoappearedintheseyearsinBulgarianand Chinese;andtranslationsintoTurkishandFarsiareinprocess. Inthisavenuetowardsrenewalofalreadyexisting‘classical’approachesto semiotics,mytheoryisgrowingfromtherootsofEuropeansemiotics,andpartic- ularlytheso-calledParisschoolofsemiotics,oncecreatedbyA.J.Greimas.Inthis path,a.o.,thesemioticsquarebecamea‘Z-model’,andlikewisemanyelements werechanged.However,inthissituationof‘neosemiotics’asIhavecalledit,one canalsocontinuetobeGreimassian,Lotmanian,Peirceanwithoutworries–the classicaltheoriesdonotlosetheirvalidityinthestudyofourDasein.However,the newtheoryoffersperhapsabroadercontext,oritislikeGreimasputit‘englobant’, surrounding. On the other hand, existential semiotics stems from the continental philo- sophyofthelinefromKant,Hegel,andKierkegaardtoHeidegger,Jaspers,Arendt, Sartre,Marcel,andWahl.Whattheword‘existential’immediatelyevokestomost isofcourseexistentialism.Nevertheless,thisisbynomeanstobeunderstoodas anykindofreturntoexistentialism.Wenevergoback,wearein2015now,and thetheorywrittennowhastoreflectitsparticularconditions. Whatemergesisperhapsanefforttounderstandbasicissuesofthecontem- poraryworld,itsethicalandaxiologicalproblems,eventoproposeatheoryof resistance,answeringtothesamequestiononceproposedbyLevTolstoi:What dowehavetodo?Yet,myconvictionisthatasermondoesnothelp;wemusthave atheoryifwewanttogetsomemorelastingeffects. vi | PrefacetoSeinundSchein Sowearehereonthewaytoasynthesisofbothsemioticandphilosophical tradition.Itisobviousthatwearemovingtowardsthesocialissues,psychology ofculture;althoughsemioticsisneverthesameaspsychology,itsmetalanguage isconceptual.Anyway,issueslikeBakhtin’sdialogism,criticismofsomecultural theoriesarethedirectionofthesereflections.Allthiswithoutforgettingtherad- ical consequences which such difficult notions as ‘transcendence’ can bring to semiotics.However,andafterall,isitnottruethatthewholesemioticsisatran- scendentalart?EveryactofcommunicationistheeffortofMr.Atoreachthe‘alien psychic’(Fremdseelig)consciousnessofMr.B,toparaphrasealittledeSaussure. Andeverysign,isitnotreferringtosomethingabsent,i.e.,transcendental? Theoriesgrowfromothertheoriesandfromtheworksofotherscholars.This istakenintoaccountherewithapanoramaofprecursorsofexistentialsemiotics, whereratheramazingnamesmayappearinthiscontext.Andalltheworkofsemi- oticianshasbeenmadepossiblebycertainorganizingandinstitutionalactivities, whichhavemadethisesotericsciencesomethingexperientialandconcrete.This factisrecalledbytheconcludingchapterofthebook,CanSemioticsBeOrganized. Myveryspecialthanksgotoallthosescholarsandinstitutionswithwhom Ihavebeenworkingintheseyears,fromtheISItotheIASS.Iamindebtedabout this constant dialogue to my colleagues as well as students in many countries and continents. Rick Littlefield has edited the majority of these chapters. Paul Forsellhasbeenmyirreplaceablehelpnotonlyintheeditorialworkbutinall myscholarlylife.IwarmlythankKimKeskiivarifortheproofreading.Idedicate thisbooktomywife,Eila,whohasfollowedandsupporteditinallofitsphases. My publisher Mouton de Gruyter I thank for a many years’ long, inspiring and pleasantcooperation. Helsinki,January2015 EeroTarasti Contents PrefacetoSeinundSchein|v PartI Philosophy:VarietiesofBeing 1 Existentialsemioticstoday:Sein(Being)andSchein(Appearing)|3 1.1 Introduction|3 1.2 Areturntobasicideas|4 1.3 Modalities|4 1.4 Daseinandtranscendence|5 1.5 Turn-aroundofDasein|8 1.6 Values|10 1.7 Newtypesofsigns|14 1.8 Moreontranscendence|16 1.9 Mimesis|18 1.10 Thesubjectreconsidered:BEING|21 1.11 Questionsbyasubject:FromBEINGtoDOING|28 1.11.1 Consequencesofourvarietiesofsubjectivity|29 2 Ontheappearanceorthepresentstructureandexistentialdigressions ofthesubject|39 2.1 Introduction|39 2.2 Moreonverticalappearance|42 2.3 Moreonhorizontalappearance|50 3 RepresentationinSemiotics|54 3.1 Therelationofrepresentationinsemiotics|54 3.2 Mappingrepresentation|55 3.3 Nöth’shandbook|57 3.4 Representationinphilosophy–JohnDeely|58 3.5 Peirce|59 3.6 Modeltheory|60 3.7 Fromcyberneticstoculturalsemiotics|61 3.8 Representationasfunction|63 3.9 ThearchaeologyofFoucault|64 3.10 Existentialsemioticinterpretation|66 viii | Contents 4 Theconceptofgenre:Ingeneralandinmusic|70 4.1 Asemioticapproachtogenreingeneral... |70 4.2 ...andinmusic|83 4.2.1 Beforegenres|83 4.2.2 Majorgenrecategories:Artmusicandpopularmusic|86 4.2.3 Normsandvarietiesofmusic|88 4.2.4 Genreinmusicalcommunication|89 4.2.5 Transgressinggenres|90 4.2.6 Crisesofgenres|91 4.2.7 Culturalreflections|92 4.2.8 Classics|93 4.2.9 Nationalversusuniversal|93 4.2.10 Socialclassificationandfunctions|95 4.2.11 Genreasclassification|97 4.2.12 Recenttheories|98 5 Theworldanditsinterpretation|100 5.1 Worldandworlds|100 5.1.1 Philosophers|101 5.1.2 Artists|106 5.1.3 Semioticians|109 5.2 Closingthoughts|111 6 SignsaroundUs–Umwelt,SemiosphereandSignscape|113 6.1 Introduction|113 6.2 Milieu–Taine|113 6.3 Surrounding/surrounded|115 6.4 Newmodelsofcommunication|117 6.5 UmweltandUexküll|118 6.6 Dasein... |120 6.7 ...andtranscendence|122 6.8 Semiosphere,LotmanandRuskin|124 6.9 Heidegger’sview|125 6.10 Subjectandenvironment|128 PartII Doing:SocietyandCulture 7 Semio-crisesintheeraofglobalisation:Towardsanewtheory ofcollectiveandindividualsubjectivity|133 7.1 Introduction|133 Contents | ix 7.2 Thelessonofsemiocrises|134 7.3 Collectivesubjectivityoridentityasaworldview|137 7.4 Individualsubjectivityorthefightbetweentwomannersof‘being’ intheworld|141 8 Ideologiesmanifestingaxiologies|144 8.1 Introduction|144 9 Semioticsofresistance:Being,memory,history,andthe counter-currentofsigns|152 9.1 Globalizationandtranscendence|152 9.2 Globalizationasthenewcivilization:Somesigns ofthetime|154 9.3 Aestheticsofresistance|158 9.3.1 ForcesofresistanceI:Being|162 9.3.2 ForcesofresistanceII:Memory|167 9.3.3 ForcesofresistanceIII:History|177 9.4 Whatareweresisting?|180 10 Cultureandtranscendence|182 10.1 Thetheoryinbrief|184 10.2 Transculturality|185 10.3 CriticismofBritishculturalstudies|187 10.4 Languagegames|189 10.5 Articulation|190 10.6 Subjectpositions|192 10.7 WhatFoucaultsaid|193 10.8 Action|195 10.9 Cultivating|196 10.10 ContentandSpeculation|198 10.11 Theorganism|200 10.12 Generation|201 10.13 Nature|202 10.14 Rhizome|203 10.15 Zemic/Zetic|205 10.16 Transfer|206 10.17 Alien-psychic|208 10.18 Conclusion|209 x | Contents PartIII LesserArts 11 Aproposalforasemiotictheoryofperformingarts|213 11.1 Generalobservations|213 11.1.1 Skill|214 11.1.2 Theory|214 11.1.3 Time|218 11.1.4 Emotions|221 11.1.5 Intentionalbody|221 11.1.6 Unpredictability|223 11.1.7 Schein|223 11.2 Anexistentialsemiotictheoryofperformance|227 11.3 Performanceinvariousarts|233 11.3.1 Performanceofthetext|233 11.3.2 Filmperformance-analysis|235 11.3.3 Varietiesofactor/actress,musician,dancer|237 12 Onculinemes,gastrophemes,andothersignsofcooking|249 12.1 Introduction|249 12.2 Twohistoricalperspectives|251 12.3 Semioticquestionsaboutfood|253 12.4 Cookingasagenerativecourse|256 12.5 Anapplication:cookinginParisaccordingtoVilleVallgren, Finnishsculptorandgourmet|261 12.6 Conclusion|265 PartIV Heimat 13.A Metaphorsofnatureandorganicism|269 13.A.1 Introduction|269 13.A.2 Whatsemioticianssayaboutnature|269 13.A.3 AugusteComte|271 13.A.4 GermanthinkersfromKanttoSchiller|272 13.A.5 Différance|276 13.A.6 Inbiosemiotics|279 13.A.7 Semiogerms|282