Introduction to Semiotics of Cultures, 2010 Juri Lotman – Universe of the Mind Chapter 3 – Part 1 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 called rhetoricogeneous