Introduction to Semiotics of Cultures, 2010 Juri Lotman – Universe of the Mind Chapter 3 – Part 2 Tropes and metaphor Vesa Matteo Piludu University of Helsinki

Semantic translations Individual and collective consciousness is heterogeneous It’s based on a minimum of 2 systems, 2 world-views, The fist system is related to coding It forms texts which come together as linear chains of linked segments Here the sign is more relevant, it’s the bearer of meaning The text is secondary In the second system the texts are more relevant They are non linear and non temporal The time and the space are the one of the given text It’s difficult to isolate signs There is a complex mechanism of exchange between the two systems The semantic translation It requires equivalent relationship between the unit of the two systems

Approximate translations Most important for creative thinking Translation from verbal (discrete) to visual or acoustic Or visual analogies for abstract ideas The approximate translations are based on rhetorical figures called tropes The tropes are both irrational ( they makes the disparate equivalent) and rational (there is a conscious construct in their logic, and often a tradition)

Example: The Ant Hill – Hangyaboly by Zoltan Fabri Multi-layered dram in an Hungarian convent Close-up of the baroque façade of the church Architectural details: relief of a sower Direct translation of the (Matthew ) Gospel parable of the sower The metaphor is not verbally narrated

Matthew He that soweth the good seed, is the Son of man. And the field is the world. And the good seed are the children of the kingdom. And the cockle are the children of the wicked one. And the enemy that sowed them, is the devil. But the harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels.

Hangyaboly / Ant Hill (1971) Zoltan Fabri choosed a lesbian nun as the positive main character - and an excellent actress for this part (Virginia). lesbianism is just a sideline to the plot, which is basically about power struggle in a cloister, the fight between reformists and conservatives. In fact, the novel on which the film is based focuses more on this, and the love story is marginal. In the film, however, the two factors intertwine much more. Virginia is brilliant as a reformist but blind as a lover, and mixing emotions with work doom her fate and that of the reforms she would like to initiate.

Visual figures Figures or visual gestures are secondary models or metamodels An aggressive gesture by an animal serves as a substitute for a real aggressive act

Rhetoricogeneous contrasts Juxtaposition between different semantic spheres (film close up and Gospel) are possible They create contrasts defined rhetoricogeneous

Tropes In traditional rhetoric The devices for changing the basic meaning of a world are called tropes (Tomashevsky) But tropes are also ways to express a concept in different ways For Jacobson there are 2 kind of tropes: Metaphor (substitution in absence of an equivalent term), frequent in poetry Metonymy (substitution in presence of an equivalent term, connection by contiguity), frequent in prose Applications of metaphor are possible in cinema, painting, psychoanalysis

Tropes in neo-rhethoric Metaphor: substitution by similarity or likeness Metonymy: substitution by similarity, association, causality Synecdoche: substitution on the basis of participation, inclusiveness, partiality or substitution of plurality by singleness Umberto Eco is interested in problems of neo-rhetoric

Tropes or not tropes There are cultures oriented to tropes Where tropes and in particular metaphors, are obligatory markers of all artistic discourses Epochs oriented to tropes: mytho-poetic period, Middle Ages, Baroque Age, Romanticism, symbolism, avant-garde. In other epochs the rejection of tropes is artistically relevant and the artistic speech has to reproduce the norms of non-artistic speech There are traditional cultural contexts where the juxtaposition within the confines of one text would be absolutely forbidden

Collage The substitutions are realized on the principle of collage Painted details mixed with natural objects

The Sower

Parable of the Sower, Albrecht Dürer, c. 1503

Van Gogh – the Sower

Millet’s the sower

Holy relic: metonimy Part of the saint body, object in direct contact with him

Icon: metaphor The "Icon of the Savior" to the left, a Georgian icon, has all the elements of Byzantine art: the conventionalized appearance of Jesus, the gold relief set with pearls, rubies, garnet, turquoise, amethyst and bone. Icon is a material of the non material divine essence Icon is a representation, a depiction

Icon Connection of icon and verbal (meaning of Gospel) Fixed canon of icon painting: rhetoric of the composition, color spectrum Energy of the Divine Logos which seeks to reveal itself to humanity Energy of humans which is directed upwards in search of higher knowledge (painter and believers) Painter: righteous life, prayer and fasting, spiritual exaltation Ritualistic-rhetorical contest

Early Russian and Byzantine culture Unification of word and melodies, wall painting, natural and artificial light, aroma of incense, architecture and settings Unification on art and transcendental truth

Tezauro: Il cannocchiale aristotelico Baroque metaphorism Wit - thinking that bring together the dissimilar and unite what is mostly impossible to unite Metaphoric consciousness equated with the creative one Divine creation full of metaphors and analogies

Romanticism Organic synthesis Connection life – arts The essence of life cannot expressed only with one language or art Wackenroder art is expressed in human images and it speaks in hieroglyphs. But it touch the heart of man, and blend the spiritual with external depictions

Avant-garde Follow the principle of juxtaposition Picasso: Les Demoiselles D'Avignon

Picasso: Woman Playing the Mandolin (1909)

Trope Is not an embellishment, a decoration Is a mechanism for constructing a content Point of contact between two languages, fundamental for creative thought

Rejection of previous rethorical figures Classicism rejects the metaphors of baroque, considered trivial Romanticism rejected the stylistic rules of Classicism Realism has anti-romanticism positions

Jacques-Louis David Classicism

Classicims Purity of styles Style genres Academicism Correctness of rules individuality expressed in a certain “neutral” way

Eugène Delacroix The Good Samaritan (1849)

Eugène Delacroix

Romanticims Contrast of colours Expressiviness of text Strong individuality of the artists