Karin Boklund-Lagopoulou
Karin Boklund-Lagopoulou (b. 1948) received her doctorate in Comparative Literature in 1976 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 1981 she joined the faculty of the School of English at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, where she taught medieval literature and literary theory until her retirement in 2015; she is now Professor Emerita. Her research interests include medieval literature and semiotics, particularly narrative theory and textual analysis; she has also published work on popular culture, an interest that stems from the frequent presence of medieval motifs in fantasy literature, science fiction, film and television. Her publications include a monograph, I Have a Yong Suster: Popular Song and the Middle English Lyric (Four Courts Press, 2002), and papers on literary theory, popular culture and medieval literature published in Greek, European and American journals and collective volumes. She frequently collaborates with her husband; they have co-authored Meaning and Geography: The Social Conception of the Region in Northern Greece (Mouton de Gruyter, 1992) and together with Mark Gottdiener co-edited the anthology Semiotics (Sage Benchmarks in Social Research Methods, 2003). Their latest publication is Theory of Semiotics: The Tradition of Ferdinand de Saussure (in Greek, 2016).
Address: Mithymnis 5
11361 Athens, Greece
Address: Mithymnis 5
11361 Athens, Greece
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The paper discusses the fragments of women’s dance songs and popular songs of the battle-of-the-sexes type and compares their depiction of the relationship between men and women to that which appears in the late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century popular carols, especially those from Richard Hill’s Commonplace Book. It suggests some tentative conclusions about how literary style is affected by the increasingly differentiated access to written language between men and women (as well as between the aristocracy and the popular classes), and the role in this context of the arrival of humanist ideals of literary language in early modern England.
Throughout the sixteenth century, the traditional manner of circulation of lyric poetry continued to be in manuscript copies, exchanged within a fairly limited circle of friends or in so-called commonplace books, private collections for the use of a particular individual, a habit which seems to have been widespread among the gentry and even among members of the middle class. In the chapter, I examine what the manuscript context of some such commonplace books can tell us about the social settings and functions of sixteenth-century lyric poetry.
The factors that create continuity are closely related to those involved in maintaining coherence between sequels, or between the episodes in a series. They are largely independent of medium and apply equally to books, comics, films, television serials, etc. Some (such as plot and character) are well understood, others (such as visual style) less so. Their importance in each case depends largely on the kind of story being transcoded.
This paper proposes to explore the various factors involved in creating this sense of continuity in cross-media adaptations, from book and/or comic book to cinema and television, but also from cinema to television and vice versa. In particular, we will attempt to define the nature and importance of visual style and the visual environment in high-quality fantasy and science fiction productions (such as Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Star Trek).
technical framework for the semiotic delimitation and analysis of semiotic
systems of material objects and practices which do not belong primarily to
the sphere of signifi cation. We call such systems, for the purposes of this
paper, non-communication systems. By their very nature, the study of such
systems does not fall wholly within the domain of semiotics, a domain that
we consider as coextensive with the study of cultural attitudes and practices.
Th us, these systems diff er structurally from communication systems,
such as language, literature, and the arts, whose primary function is to be
used for communication between members of a society and whose structure
is primarily semiotic.
textual structure and the underlying semantic structure is lacking, or cannot be perceived by the reader, the result is a feeling that the text is incoherent. This is also true of the syntactic dimension. An endless series of narrative ‘events’ or episodes that does not appear to lead to any significant change in the narrative, or confer any clear direction on it, results in a growing frustration, a feeling that the text isnot ‘going’ anywhere. The need for continuity between surface textual structure and underlying syntactic-semantic structure will be demonstrated by looking at the narrative and thematic structure of both Martin’s novels and their television adaptation.
Characteristic of this literary genre is that the parallel universe which it presents often includes elements borrowed from actual societies of the past. There are several possible models, but among the most popular is the “medieval” one, ie., an imaginary society that includes elements from the historical medieval cultures of Europe. These elements may be both historical and literary: the contemporary fantasy writer uses not only actual historical phenomena (such as noble kings, brave knights, barbarian enemies), but mainly elements of medieval literature and legend (dragons, elves, magic objects, heroes with superhuman powers).
Among the most popular works of literary fantasy inspired by the Middle Ages – and perhaps the most successful both commercially and artistically – is J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings. I believe a large share of its success is due to the fact that Tolkien was himself a medievalist, professor of Middle English philology at the University of Oxford.
Tolkien’s work incorporates a horde of elements taken from European medieval history, literature, and above all, legend. These elements bring with them into his work the ideological underpinnings of the cultures where they originated, something which adds to the semantic richness of Tolkien’s fantasy world. But the narrative itself is nonetheless a literary work of the 20th century and its values are essentially those of pre-war England. In the end, all the magic of his fantasy world is deployed in the defence of the very ordinary, everyday life of a nostalgically portrayed pre-war, rural Englishness. Paradoxically, this work of fantasy turns out to be very much a literature of the everyday.
The paper discusses the fragments of women’s dance songs and popular songs of the battle-of-the-sexes type and compares their depiction of the relationship between men and women to that which appears in the late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century popular carols, especially those from Richard Hill’s Commonplace Book. It suggests some tentative conclusions about how literary style is affected by the increasingly differentiated access to written language between men and women (as well as between the aristocracy and the popular classes), and the role in this context of the arrival of humanist ideals of literary language in early modern England.
Throughout the sixteenth century, the traditional manner of circulation of lyric poetry continued to be in manuscript copies, exchanged within a fairly limited circle of friends or in so-called commonplace books, private collections for the use of a particular individual, a habit which seems to have been widespread among the gentry and even among members of the middle class. In the chapter, I examine what the manuscript context of some such commonplace books can tell us about the social settings and functions of sixteenth-century lyric poetry.
The factors that create continuity are closely related to those involved in maintaining coherence between sequels, or between the episodes in a series. They are largely independent of medium and apply equally to books, comics, films, television serials, etc. Some (such as plot and character) are well understood, others (such as visual style) less so. Their importance in each case depends largely on the kind of story being transcoded.
This paper proposes to explore the various factors involved in creating this sense of continuity in cross-media adaptations, from book and/or comic book to cinema and television, but also from cinema to television and vice versa. In particular, we will attempt to define the nature and importance of visual style and the visual environment in high-quality fantasy and science fiction productions (such as Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Star Trek).
technical framework for the semiotic delimitation and analysis of semiotic
systems of material objects and practices which do not belong primarily to
the sphere of signifi cation. We call such systems, for the purposes of this
paper, non-communication systems. By their very nature, the study of such
systems does not fall wholly within the domain of semiotics, a domain that
we consider as coextensive with the study of cultural attitudes and practices.
Th us, these systems diff er structurally from communication systems,
such as language, literature, and the arts, whose primary function is to be
used for communication between members of a society and whose structure
is primarily semiotic.
textual structure and the underlying semantic structure is lacking, or cannot be perceived by the reader, the result is a feeling that the text is incoherent. This is also true of the syntactic dimension. An endless series of narrative ‘events’ or episodes that does not appear to lead to any significant change in the narrative, or confer any clear direction on it, results in a growing frustration, a feeling that the text isnot ‘going’ anywhere. The need for continuity between surface textual structure and underlying syntactic-semantic structure will be demonstrated by looking at the narrative and thematic structure of both Martin’s novels and their television adaptation.
Characteristic of this literary genre is that the parallel universe which it presents often includes elements borrowed from actual societies of the past. There are several possible models, but among the most popular is the “medieval” one, ie., an imaginary society that includes elements from the historical medieval cultures of Europe. These elements may be both historical and literary: the contemporary fantasy writer uses not only actual historical phenomena (such as noble kings, brave knights, barbarian enemies), but mainly elements of medieval literature and legend (dragons, elves, magic objects, heroes with superhuman powers).
Among the most popular works of literary fantasy inspired by the Middle Ages – and perhaps the most successful both commercially and artistically – is J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy The Lord of the Rings. I believe a large share of its success is due to the fact that Tolkien was himself a medievalist, professor of Middle English philology at the University of Oxford.
Tolkien’s work incorporates a horde of elements taken from European medieval history, literature, and above all, legend. These elements bring with them into his work the ideological underpinnings of the cultures where they originated, something which adds to the semantic richness of Tolkien’s fantasy world. But the narrative itself is nonetheless a literary work of the 20th century and its values are essentially those of pre-war England. In the end, all the magic of his fantasy world is deployed in the defence of the very ordinary, everyday life of a nostalgically portrayed pre-war, rural Englishness. Paradoxically, this work of fantasy turns out to be very much a literature of the everyday.
A Passion Play from Cyprus, usually dated to the late 13th century, is generally interpreted as an attempt by a local Orthodox cleric to adapt the western tradition of religious drama to a Greek-speaking Orthodox audience. Crucial to this attempt – and to its apparent failure to gain wider acceptance – appears to be the roles of various languages – Latin, Greek, vernacular – in the sacred texts of the eastern and western churches and in the religious drama. This paper will attempt an interpretation of the peculiar characteristics of this text as the result of a particular form of historically determined interculturality, the medieval meeting and clash of cultures in the eastern Mediterranean, and their differing perceptions of appropriate ways of representing the sacred, in language and in performance.
Οι συγγραφείς του παρόντος βιβλίου επέλεξαν να παρουσιάσουν, μεταξύ των διαφόρων σημειωτικών κατευθύνσεων, την «κλασική» ευρωπαϊκή σημειωτική, ευέλικτο προϊόν της πάντοτε επίκαιρης και ριζοσπαστικής δομικής γλωσσολογίας του Ferdinand de Saussure. Αρχίζοντας με μία σύντομη επισκόπηση της ιστορικής εξέλιξης του πεδίου και των διάφορων σχολών της σημειωτικής, αναλύεται εκτενώς η θεωρία της γλώσσας ως συστήματος, η οποία είναι μία θεωρία του σημείου. Ακολουθεί η επέκτασή της στη θεωρία της αφηγηματολογίας, με βάση τις εργασίες της Σχολής του Παρισιού και του κεντρικού προσώπου της Algirdas-Julien Greimas, η οποία είναι πλέον μία θεωρία του κειμένου. Οι συγγραφείς εμπλουτίζουν την παρουσίαση με τις προσωπικές έρευνές τους, με βάση τις οποίες οργανώνουν και το τελευταίο μέρος του βιβλίου, στο οποίο αναπτύσσουν μία πρωτότυπη θεωρία επικοινωνίας.