Cultural Icons

"...This is a readable and useful volume that covers a range of topics... the book makes a contribution to an interesting field that will no doubt become even more important as the visuality of culture continues to take central stage... The editors of Cultural icons have collated a number of essays that deal with a variety of international icons that have accrued distinct cultural meanings. Although the origins of the icons discussed can be located in diverse places such as South Africa, Denmark, France, Norway, Austria and Britain, it is clear that the iconicity that the various authors examine transcends borders. Indeed, one of the strong points of this volume is the way in which the authors demonstrate how localised cultural icons are taken up, mediated, appropriated and even recontextualized. Not only have the cultural icons discussed here become potent intertexts, but they have also become part of the network of significations that characterise contemporary westernised society. Another laudable aspect of this book is that the authors have provided thorough historical contexts for their semiotic unpacking of the cultural icons, thereby adding to the academic rigour and value of the project."...-Jeanne van Eeden, Visual Anthropology "...Cultural Icons offers a theoretically grounded methodology for analysing complex cultural symbols replete with a set of case studies. Students and scholars of visual culture are likely to find the semiotic approach adopted in this collection useful for analysing visual icons and media. While the methodology is not entirely novel, given its reliance on Peirce's semiotics and postmodern cultural theory, the specific applications to visual icons and the attention paid to the historical and social contexts in which icons operate make this edited collection a notable contribution to the field of visual studies."...- Judith R. Halasz, State University of New York, New Paltz ...I strongly recommend the book to anyone interested in the construction of meaning in practice. This book offers valuable supplementary reading to anyone interested in the topic, although it is best not to use it as the only source for courses devoted to the construction of meaning as more theoretical background is required. Nevertheless, the theoretical issues discussed in the introduction could also be very helpful for students in semiotics, particularly those interested in the differences between semiotics and semiology."...- Ekaterina Timofeeva, Discourse & Communication

• Introduction: Cultural Icons; 1: The Absent Signifier: The Morphing of Nelson Mandela; 2: The Little Mermaid; 3: The Eiffel Tower: Cultural Icon, Cultural Interface; 4: Edvard Munch’s The Scream as Cultural Icon; 5: The Holy Lance As Late Twentieth-Century Subcultural Icon; 6: The Semiotics of Cultural Icons: The Example of Britannia