Volume 9, Issue 2, 2012

Asunción López-VarelaPages 7-12DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012921 ABSTRACT Etymologically derived from the Greek word semeion which means ‘sign,’ semiotics can be defined as the study of signs and of the systems, rules and conventions that allow signs to have meaning. This thematic issue of Cultura Journal seeks to provide an overview of different theories on the study of […]

Wenceslao CastañaresPages 13-32DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012922 ABSTRACT Three lines of semiotic thought were developed by Greek culture: that of Medicine, that of the Arts of discourse (Logic, Dialectic and Rhetoric), and finally, that of Language, strictly speaking. Even though these three branches evolved in quite parallel terms, they only slightly influenced one another, which hindered the existence

Oana CogeanuPages 33-44DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012923 ABSTRACT In the beginning was the triangle, the apostles of semiology say. In arguing for a semiological approach to literature, this paper highlights first that the consecrated semiotic triangle seen in perspective proves to be a pyramid, with its faces consisting of minimal semiotic triads; it then suggests that the pyramidal

Qingben Li, Jinghua GuoPages 45-60DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012924 ABSTRACT In the age of Globalization, cultural identity is a pointed and hotly debated question in academia. Cultural identity involves a core of traditional values and the recognition of several developing layers: the individual, the community and the nation. China has two dominant cultural tendencies: conservatism and protectionism. This

Ömer Naci SoykanPages 61-76DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012925 ABSTRACT A belief commonly held in linguistics and philosophy is that semantics is defined by syntax. In this article, I will demonstrate that this does not hold true for Turkish. A fundamental syntactical rule builds around the successive order of words or speech units in a sentence. The order determines

Dan LunguPages 77-86DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012926 ABSTRACT Translation is a fundamental part of cultural dissemination. Based on an empirical qualitative research, the first part of this article presents the effects that the wave of translations after 2005, the first of utmost importance in the Romanian cultural environment, engaged in the local literary field, and in the second

Yi ChenPages 87-102DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012927 ABSTRACT Traditionally, comparative literature has focused on the study of influences between texts and it is only recent work that has explored the analogies and affinities of historically independent cultures. In this spirit, this paper develops methods for a structured poetic analysis and applies them to a systematic comparison of the

Lars ElleströmPages 103-122DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012928 ABSTRACT This article aims to show that so-called Mail Art (art distributed via the international postal system) is based on five paradoxes. These paradoxes, which correlate to how Mail Art is distributed and exhibited by means of changing technologies, its aesthetics, its democratic ideals, and its transnational character, explain how Mail

Benson O. IgboinPages 123-142DOI: 10.5840/cultura2012929 ABSTRACT In most societies, greetings are the expression of emotions such as friendliness or rejection, and form the basis of social and moral order. The symbolic dimension of greetings is frequently entwined in the cultural and metaphysical reality of a community. In African societies this ethical and religious dimension carries

Ulani Yunus, Dominiq TulasiPages 143-150DOI: 10.5840/cultura20129210 ABSTRACT Batik industry, Indonesia’s traditional practice of dying cloth through wax resist methods, is considered an important source of intangible cultural heritage and protected under UNESCO. The industry is very diverse and many different colors and motives are used. Research in this article focuses on Batik in Yogyakarta, Surakarta,