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______________________________________________________________________ The "Zeitschrift für
Semiotik": Abstracts ______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________ Silvia Koch Werner Enninger und Christa Schwens Hermann Sturm Claudia Albert und Burkhard Baltzer Manfred Moser Mihály Hoppál Michèle Wolf History and meaning of the cemetry in the Occident Silvia Koch, University of Osnabrück Summary. This article introduces the reader to the theme of the present issue. The
author defines the cemetery as an enclosed area designed for the interring of the dead,
describes the development of the cemetery from the churchyard, and presents the sign
system underlying the urban cemeteries of the 19th and 20th centuries. The grave is
identified as the basic functional unit, and the structure of the cemetery is analyzed
semantically as a means of social evaluation. This approach, which is complementary to
that of art history and socio-economic analysis, brings to the for a number of problems
which are then discussed.
Werner Enninger and Christa Schwens, GHS University Essen Summary. On the basis of the assumption that cemeteries can be modeled as semiotic
facts, the paper advances a set of semiotic hypotheses. Their plausibility is assessed in
a survey of cemeteries from various cultures. Ultimately, it is suggested that cemeteries
can be taken to be cultural texts as defined by Lotman. The aesthetic sign of death: cenotaph and necropolis Hermann Sturm, GHD University Essen Summary. The confrontation with death often stimulates the production of aesthetic
signs and the development of specific sign systems. Death viewed as a transition from one
side of a frontier to the other can be symbolized aesthetically by a door which allows
crossing and passage, opening and blocking the way, as well as by the lowering of
architecture below the ground. The paradigm of transition is described here as an inter-
and intracultural phenomenon, exemplified by the memorials (cenotaphs) and burial sites
(necropoles) which are found in ancient Egypt and in Etruria and the architecture of the
baroque and the French Revolution.
Jewish assimilation as reflected by the tombstones in Berlin-Weißensee cemetry Claudia Albert, Berlin Summary. On the basis of a sample of over 100 photographs of Jewish tombs in the
cemetery at Berlin-Weißensee, the authors try to point out some characteristic features
of Jewish assimilation between 1882 and 1945. They show that even the most ostentatious
tombs and inscriptions express the principal problem of Jews in Germany: nevery fully
accepted, the initially reacted with a kind of over-assimilation, before returning to
their traditional ritual during the Nazi period. Redipuglia war memorial: 100 000 dead. A perpetration Manfred Moser, University of Klagenfurt Summary. A visit to the Italian war memorial of Redipuglia is shown to trigger a sequence of sign processes. They are described in all their complexity and interdependence. A central role is played by the aesthetic structure of the monument, which is interpreted within the interaction of the various levels of perception. Mihály Hoppál, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest Summary. In Hungarian cemeteries two special kinds of wooden grave markers are to be found: crosses signify that the deceased person was a Catholic, while decorative grave-posts indicate a number of one of the Protestant Churches. The formal features of the grave-post offer themselves for a semiotic analysis on the levels of syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics. The oppositions ‘young’/’old’, ‘male’/’female’, and ‘rich’/’poor’ are represented in various modes. Iconicity is important insofar as the grave-posts are anthropomorphic, which is also reflected in the verbal labels of their parts: "head", "breast", "foot", etc. Historically, the grave-posts probably belong to the most ancient layer of Hungarian folk culture. Typologically, the Hungarian wooden grave-posts are examples of the highly differentiated ethnosemiotic systems used by the peasantry in eastern central Europe. Michèle Wolf, GHS University Essen Summary. The Asnières dog cemetery near Paris is analyzed as an example of a European animal cemetery. Since the burying of the corpse is restricted to humans in Europe, someone who buries a deceased relative follows the norm, whereas someone who buries a dead animal violates the norm. This asymmetry allows a number of inferences from the appearance of animal tombs to the status of the buried animal, the motivation of the pet owner, his emotions, and those ascribed to the animal by him. The historical development of the grave inscriptions implies that certain changes have taken place in the mentality of pet owners in the 20th century. |
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