Browsing by Subject "semiosphere"

This study explores the spatial structure of power and its dynamics in Hrafnkels saga. The focus lies on how power is manifested and dynamized in space and how the characters place themselves in that spatial structure. Further, this study aims to investigate how well Lotman’s spatial models and theories can be applied to an Icelandic saga. The material consists of the Swedish translation of the saga Islänningasagorna: Samtliga släktsagor och fyrtionio tåtar (2014). Hrafnkels saga is popular amongst researcher, not least due to its simple structure and plot. The saga tells the story of Hrafnkell, a powerful chieftain from eastern Iceland, who loses his power and regains it six years later. Power is an eminent theme in Hrafnkels saga and in the sagas of Icelanders in general. Power is a complex construct comprised of honour, wealth and virility. Thus, someone’s power is dependent on all these components and the interaction between them. Even slight changes within the construct can have a big impact on someone’s status in society. In order to identify the spatial structure of power, a combination of Lotman’s spatial models and semiotic theories is applied to the saga. With the help of the models and theories, spatial structures, borders, elements and the dynamics between them can be identified. They also enable the detection of eventful and uneventful texts as well as mobile and immobile characters within these texts. The analysis shows that the spatial structure of power in Hrafnkels saga is built on two dimensions (up-down and west-east) that undergo a cycle of destruction and reconstruction within three subsemiospheres. The mobile characters Einarr, Sámr, Þorkell and Þorgeirr Þjóstarsson as well as Hrafnkell cross borders and spur the dynamics of power, which leads to a shift in power. The crossing of the borders is only possible with the help of certain recurring, immobile characters that manipulate the mobile characters. The manipulation itself is bound to a system of cycles that consist of recurring elements symbolizing power that manifest themselves in space. Hence, the system of cycles and the recurring, immobile characters are initiating the dynamics of power resulting in the shifts in power in Hrafnkels saga.

If culture fossilizes in language, what does language say about us? Typology of Hate: Hegemonic Sign Systems in Hate Speech examines how culturally semiotic signs build the themes of gendered hate speech in the contemporary hybrid media environment. More than ever, the role taken in discourse previously governed by “intellectuals” is shifting, and ideas of significance are circulated, debated and constructed online. Hate speech occupying space in mainstream culture is seen as a risk that modern technology enables in a completely new way. Online hate speech forms a complicated network of multimodal interactions, which makes defining it – and consequently, managing it – more challenging. Definitions of hate speech cannot focus on individual utterances or speech acts alone but must be looked against a wider socio-cultural impact by studying the meanings of signs and significations constructed in language against their cultural backdrop. This Master’s Thesis attempts to define hate speech by recognizing some of the thematic tropes repeated in its different variations, particularly its gendered form, which are semiotized online. Through an observation in digital ethnography and methods of discourse analysis, the qualitative data of the research was collected from r/TheRedPill on Reddit in March 2022. Data shows that the case study’s discourse is largely built on three thematic tropes defining gendered hate speech. Heteropatriarchal constructions of gender, systemic devaluation and regulation of femininity, and pseudoscientific beliefs are at the core of the group’s hateful discourse. This thesis has recognized dominant patterns through examples of gendered hate speech in radicalized language in the case study of the Red Pill community, and further paves way towards a practical index manual on hate speech reporting and recognition.