Semiotics of Religion: Signs of the Sacred in History by Robert A. Yelle (Englis

Description: Semiotics of Religion by Robert A. Yelle, Professor Robert A. Yelle Integrates structural and historical perspectives on the semiotics of religion and gives an account of the distinctive features of religious language and symbolism. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Following the heyday of Lévi-Straussian structuralism in the 1970s-80s, little attention has been paid by scholars of religion to semiotics. Semiotics of Religion reassesses key semiotic theories in the light of religious data. Yelle examines the semiotics of religion from structural and historical perspectives, drawing on Peircean linguistic anthropology, Jakobsonian poetics, comparative religion and several theological traditions. This book pays particular attention to the transformation of religious symbolism under modernization and the rise of a culture of the printed book. Among the topics addressed are:- ritual repetition and the poetics of ritual performance- magic and the belief in a natural (iconic) language- Protestant literalism and iconoclasm- disenchantment and secularization- Holiness, arbitrariness, and agencyBuilding from the legacy of structuralism while interrogating several key doctrines of that movement, Semiotics of Religion both introduces the field to a new generation and charts a course for future research. Author Biography Robert A. Yelle is Assistant Professor at the Department of History and the Helen Hardin Honors Program, University of Memphis, USA. Table of Contents 1. Introduction \ 2. Distinctive Features of Religious Symbolism and Language \ 3. Natural and Artificial Languages \ 4. The Semiotics of Ritual Form \ 5. The Attack on Semiotic Form \ 6. Protestant Literalism and Print Culture \ 7. Signs of Salvation \ Bibliography \ Index Review A deep and engaging book sure to pique the interests of researchers in both semiotics and religion. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty. -- J. L. Best, St. Thomas University * CHOICE *As Robert Yelle compellingly argues in his compact, meaty monograph, a semiotic approach to religion (magic, ritual, myth) requires attention to both semiotic form and semiotic ideology - the poetics of rhyme and repetition, but equally the underlying nominalist ideology that naming invokes the ghost ... [T]he cogent ways in which he pulls together countless familiar piecemeal insights and well-known cases and debates in the anthropology of religion make his book worthwhile reading for linguistic anthropologists ... In sum, this groundbreaking interdisciplinary work provides a compelling argument for the tools of our trade by someone firmly situated in a different discipline. * Linguistic Anthropology *This important work takes up the almost forgotten task of advancing the study of religion to a place of deeper comprehension in which the tasks of comparison and broad categorical analysis are possible. The means of advance, as the title indicates, is semiotics ... [T]his [is a] carefully plotted argument, making Semiotics of Religion a highly recommended work of theory and method. * Religious Studies Review *In [Yelles] book he suggests a more radical reorientation for the study of religious phenomena that shifts focus from attempts to uncover the underlying cosmology of religious and magical rituals - that is, the particular semantic or symbolic meaning of such practices - to an approach that gives closer attention to the semiotics of ritual repetition and form ... Yelles willingness ... to take religious discourse on its own terms as well as his explanations of the complex language ideologies at work in South Asian religious ritual and practice provide a valuable contribution to both the study of language and the study of religion. * Language in Society *Students of semiotics, semiotic anthropology, cultural anthropology, religious studies, anthropology of religion, and especially semiotics of religion, have long waited for a publication of this kind ... [This book] revitaliz[es] the domain of semiotics, and in particular that of the semiotics of religion, with new themes, insights, sensibility and, last but not least, a new style ... Another merit of Yelles book, perhaps the greatest one, is to demonstrate with lucidity and efficacy that the semiotic ideologies that underpin religious traditions did not vanish in the era of supposed secularization but mutated, instead, into often neglected aspects of secular, modern, and even post-modern semiotic ideologies. * Religion [from a review symposium in 44:1] *[B]road in scope and ambitious. ... According to Yelles compelling argument, religions develop their own poetics that promote the use of signs and languages as non-arbitrary and motivated entities; as such, religious uses are related to poetry and performance, rather than history or philosophy. ... Yelles book is a landmark in semiotics and religious studies, and will be the basis of many research developments for several years. * Religion [from a review symposium in 44:1) *[Yelles] extremely interesting engagement with ritual language with regard to magic in particular provides a different reading of magic, one that takes for granted its rationality and takes seriously its discursive poetics as an aspect of its efficacy and not an aspect of its being science gone wrong. In this kind of approach, Yelle provides a fresh and insightful reading of magic, something quite unique in the study of systems of belief and practice. * Religion [from a review symposium in 44:1) *Robert A. Yelles Semiotics of Religion lays important groundwork for a revival of semiotics in the study of religion. In an admirably clear and straightforward manner, he examines a number of semiotic ideologies and their implications for ritual actions and historical interpretation. ... Yelles account of Protestant literalism, with its entailments especially in the sphere of law, is remarkably clear and to the point. Despite an inordinately large corpus of material to grapple with, Yelle succeeds admirably in articulating the implications of plain speech – and the rejection of vain repetitions – within the 16th- and 17th-century moment. * Religion [from a review symposium in 44:1] *This book is vast in scope, deep in implications, and admirably clear and forthright in exposition.The study of religion has needed a work of this kind, which brings together several research traditions and pushes the resulting synthesis in new directions. The result is an agenda-setting project of huge ambition. -- Webb Keane, University of Michigan, USASemiotics of Religion displays sensational semiotic sensitivity in analyzing the practical poetics of performance - the pragmatics of performativity - of various expressions of the religious life.From this perspective and with great erudition, Yelle then engages the four-hundred-year-long European Enlightenment drive both stipulatively and interpretatively to semanticize religious practice - as also language itself - in an ideological project of containment that has been central to institutionalizing disenchanted modernity. In this enchanting book Yelle demonstrates a more inclusive semiotics of religion. -- Michael Silverstein, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago, USA Promotional Integrates structural and historical perspectives on the semiotics of religion and gives an account of the distinctive features of religious language and symbolism. Review Quote This book is vast in scope, deep in implications, and admirably clear and forthright in exposition.The study of religion has needed a work of this kind, which brings together several research traditions and pushes the resulting synthesis in new directions.The result is an agenda-setting project of huge ambition. Promotional "Headline" Integrates structural and historical perspectives on the semiotics of religion and gives an account of the distinctive features of religious language and symbolism. Feature Explains many of the characteristic features of religious symbolism from the context of modern semiotics. Details ISBN1441142827 Author Professor Robert A. Yelle Year 2012 ISBN-10 1441142827 ISBN-13 9781441142825 Format Hardcover Subtitle Signs of the Sacred in History Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States DEWEY 210.14 Publication Date 2012-11-08 Short Title SEMIOTICS OF RELIGION Language English Media Book Series Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics DOI CBID162270 Pages 256 Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Imprint Bloomsbury Academic USA Affiliation St Hughs College, Oxford University, UK UK Release Date 2012-11-08 Translated from English NZ Release Date 2012-11-08 US Release Date 2012-11-08 Translator Tom Kuhn Edited by John Shepherd Birth 1971 Position Author Qualifications M.N., R.N., Aocn Audience Undergraduate AU Release Date 2012-10-31 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:48686984;

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