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Stories of Resistance in Greek Street Art : A Cognitive-Semiotic Approach

Stampoulidis, Georgios LU orcid (2019) In The Public Journal of Semiotics 8(2). p.29-48
Abstract
In line with cognitive semiotics, this paper suggests a synthetic account of the important but controversial notion of narrative (in street art, and more generally): one that distinguishes between three levels: (a) narration, (b) underlying story, and (c) frame-setting. The narrative potential of street art has not yet been considerably studied in order to offer insights into how underlying stories may be reconstructed from the audience and how different semiotic systems contribute to this. The analysis is mainly based on three contemporary street artworks and two political cartoons from the 1940s, visualizing the same frame-setting, which may be labeled as “Greece vs. Powerful Enemy.” The study is built on fieldwork research that was... (More)
In line with cognitive semiotics, this paper suggests a synthetic account of the important but controversial notion of narrative (in street art, and more generally): one that distinguishes between three levels: (a) narration, (b) underlying story, and (c) frame-setting. The narrative potential of street art has not yet been considerably studied in order to offer insights into how underlying stories may be reconstructed from the audience and how different semiotic systems contribute to this. The analysis is mainly based on three contemporary street artworks and two political cartoons from the 1940s, visualizing the same frame-setting, which may be labeled as “Greece vs. Powerful Enemy.” The study is built on fieldwork research that was carried out during several periods in central Athens since 2014, including photo documentation and go-along interviews with street artists. The qualitative analyses with the help of insights from phenomenology show that single static images do not narrate stories themselves (i.e. primary narrativity), but rather presuppose such stories, which they can prompt or trigger. Notably, the significance of sedimented socio-cultural experience, collective memory and contextual knowledge that the audience must recruit in order to reconstruct the narrative potential through the process of secondary narrativity is stressed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
narrative, narration, street art, phenomenology, primary/secondary narrativity, cognitive semiotics, semitoics, narrativity
in
The Public Journal of Semiotics
volume
8
issue
2
pages
29 - 48
publisher
Open Semiotics Resource Center
ISSN
1918-9907
DOI
10.37693/pjos.2018.8.19872
project
Street Artivism on Athenian Walls: A cognitive semiotic analysis of metaphor and narrative in street art
Urban Creativity Lund
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0914e7a3-cf2f-495c-8257-d8db7e25313d
date added to LUP
2019-07-08 12:43:38
date last changed
2020-04-24 02:17:57
@article{0914e7a3-cf2f-495c-8257-d8db7e25313d,
  abstract     = {{In line with cognitive semiotics, this paper suggests a synthetic account of the important but controversial notion of narrative (in street art, and more generally): one that distinguishes between three levels: (a) narration, (b) underlying story, and (c) frame-setting. The narrative potential of street art has not yet been considerably studied in order to offer insights into how underlying stories may be reconstructed from the audience and how different semiotic systems contribute to this. The analysis is mainly based on three contemporary street artworks and two political cartoons from the 1940s, visualizing the same frame-setting, which may be labeled as “Greece vs. Powerful Enemy.” The study is built on fieldwork research that was carried out during several periods in central Athens since 2014, including photo documentation and go-along interviews with street artists. The qualitative analyses with the help of insights from phenomenology show that single static images do not narrate stories themselves (i.e. primary narrativity), but rather presuppose such stories, which they can prompt or trigger. Notably, the significance of sedimented socio-cultural experience, collective memory and contextual knowledge that the audience must recruit in order to reconstruct the narrative potential through the process of secondary narrativity is stressed.}},
  author       = {{Stampoulidis, Georgios}},
  issn         = {{1918-9907}},
  keywords     = {{narrative; narration; street art; phenomenology; primary/secondary narrativity; cognitive semiotics; semitoics; narrativity}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{29--48}},
  publisher    = {{Open Semiotics Resource Center}},
  series       = {{The Public Journal of Semiotics}},
  title        = {{Stories of Resistance in Greek Street Art : A Cognitive-Semiotic Approach}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/76541233/Stories_of_resistance_in_Greek_street_Art.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.37693/pjos.2018.8.19872}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}