The semiotics of consumption : interpreting symbolic consumer behavior in popular culture and works of art / by Morris B. Holbrook, Elizabeth C. Hirschman

Author: Holbrook, Morris B.
Published: Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1993.
Physical Description: 1 online resource (xi, 365 pages).
Additional Creators: Hirschman, Elizabeth Caldwell, 1949-

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Series

Approaches to semiotics ; 110

Language Note

English.

Contents

Acknowledgments; Chapter I The role of semiotics in research on consumer esthetics; 1. Introduction; 2. Some background on the study of signs; 2.1. Overview; 2.2. Neopositivistic semiotics; 2.3. Interpretive semiology; 2.4. Summary; 3. The study of signs in consumer esthetics; 3.1. Beginnings; 3.2. The link to consumer esthetics; 3.3. Preview; 3.4. Problems and prospects in neopositivistic semiotic studies of consumer esthetics; 3.5. Problems and prospects in the interpretive semiology of consumer esthetics; 4. Criticisms and defenses of interpretive semiology, 4.1. The critique and defense concerning the scientific status of interpretive semiology4.2. The critique and defense concerning the appeal to managerial relevance; 5. Preview; Chapter II Semiotics and popular culture; 1. Introduction; 2. The ideology of consumption; 2.1. Preview; 2.2 "Dallas" and "Dynasty"; 2.3. Sacredness and secularity in motion pictures; 3. Motion picture mythology; 3.1. Introduction; 3.2. What is a myth?; 3.3. Analyzing myths; 3.4. Classifying archetypes; 3.5. The structure of myths; 3.6. Motion pictures as myths; 3.7. Discussion, Chapter III Romanticism and sentimentality in consumer behavior: A literary approach to the joys and sorrows of consumption1. Introduction; 2. Romanticism; 2.1. The romantic ethos; 2.2. The Wordsworthian vision; 2.3. The quest; 2.4. A universal impulse; 2.5. Preview; 3. The joys and sorrows of consumption; 3.1. Odysseus comes home; 3.2. Aeneas and the tragic Queen Dido: From romanticism to sentimentality; 3.3. The age of sentiment; 3.4. From Marlowe to Goethe: Faust gets saved; 3.5. Bloom as Ulysses: Odysseus returns; 4. Epilogue, Chapter IV Seven routes to facilitating the semiotic interpretation of consumption symbolism and marketing imagery in works of art1. Introduction; 2. Prospects and problems, dangers and difficulties; 3. Seven routes to interpretation; 4. Conclusion; Appendices; 1. Appendix 1: Women of Manhattan; 2. Appendix 2: Beverly Hills cop; 3. Appendix 3: Tin men and the marketing concept; 4. Appendix 4: Gremlins as metaphors for materialism; 5A. Appendix 5A: Coastal disturbances (coauthored with Stephen Bell and Mark W. Grayson), and 5B. Appendix 5B: Sacred and secular consumption imagery in A Christmas carol6. Appendix 6: Automotive signs in Two for the road; 7. Appendix 7: Major and minor uses of symbolic consumer behavior to develop plot and character in Out of Africa (coauthored with Mark W. Grayson); References; Index

Summary

The Semiotics of Consumption: Interpreting Symbolic Consumer Behavior in Popular Culture and Works of Art (Approaches to Semiotics).

Subject(s)

ISBN

9783110854732 (electronic bk.)
3110854732 (electronic bk.)
3110134918 (acid-free paper)
9783110134919

Digital File Characteristics

data file

Bibliography Note

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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