This work is a synopsis of an argument for a semiotic approach to theorizing religion. The central argument combines Jonathan Z. Smith’s notion of “sacred persistence” as the dynamic relationship between a canon and a hermeneute with the work of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Mikhail Bakhtin. The argument is that religion is a process of on-going semiotic construction...

■ ABSTRACT: Based on the assumption that the foundations of the linguistic theory of the Bakhtin Circle (which results from the combination of Voloshinov, Medvedev and Bakhtin works) are constructed in dialogue with theoretical traditions among which Marxism plays an important role, this paper discusses aspects related to the way the understanding of this group about the status of relations bet...

For colonized subjects, the arrival of the colonizer is fraught with socio cultural anxieties. Under the yoke a new regime, the indigenous cultural values and norms are redefined. The new cultural episteme that emerges under the dictates of colonization not only subverts the existing power structures but also redefines the practice of everyday life. In historical terms, it could be seen as dial...

the vast diversity of the proposed definitions of parody, both before and after the twentieth century, can be an emblem of the lack of a thorough agreement amongst the literary critics about the definition of this literary technique (genre?!). while there is not a comprehensive all-accepted definition of parody, modern and postmodern literatures both exhibit a wide application of it. after look...