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X Marks the Spot: The
Power of Signs in Today's Image-Based Society
It’s amazing how much meaning a single letter
can have in today’s image-conscious culture. Everything
- from movies to sports names – is marketed with
the same 24th letter of the English alphabet –
the letter “X.” There’s Nissan’s
X-Terra model, X-treme sports, movie action hero Triple
X, XXX movies. X has become synonymous with youth, danger,
excitement and all the X-citing things that our modern
culture makes available (pun intended). X is an ideal
example of the power of signs. Marcel will look at why
some signs, such as X, are powerful shapers of thought
and how they tap into ancient pictographic symbolism,
which still reverberate in the modern mind.
Marcel Danesi is professor of Semiotics and Anthropology
at the University of Toronto. He is also Director of
the Program in Semiotics and Communication Theory. Among
his publications are Understanding Media Semiotics,
Persuasive Signs: The Semiotics of Advertising
and My Son Is an Alien: A Cultural Portrait of Today's
Youth.
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