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American Culture as System: A Methodological Inquiry

Kosinski, Mark Kermit

Abstract Details

1978, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, English.
This dissertation has been written in response to the growing demand for new methodological directions in American Studies. In order to be adequate to the purpose, this study first evaluated the strengths and short-comings of the so-called "myth-symbol" school which has dominated American Studies scholarship since the 1950s. A review of important myth-symbol works showed a failure by scholars in addressing a concept of culture. This study, therefore, attempted to lay the groundwork for such a concept of culture and demonstrated how such a theory can be applied to a particular artifact. Adopting the assumption made by Cecil Tate, this dissertation proposed a model grounded in structuralism. Specifically, this study used principles from the field of semiology which study signs and sign systems. Sign system was found to be a most persuasive concept because it promises to trace the very process by which a culture defines itself. Semiology revealed that culture emerges from the interaction of sign systems that are governed by codes or structural laws. This study showed that semiology offers American Studies a pertinent framework for viewing the interaction of human activity and sign systems of communication. American culture was, therefore, defined as a dynamic process, or system, made up of a multiplicity of sign structures found in language, objects, and human action. The description of sign system was applied to Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. The practical concerns of this study showed how this particular novel belongs to an organized cultural system. By studying the very process of Ishmael's act of defining his world, Melville revealed a complex system of rules and codes which governed his nineteenth century cultural world. This study focused attention on sign structures including narrative order, character codes, the classification of anthropological materials, and encoded social knowledge. In effect, Moby-Dick was found to contain an index to the cultural signs and structures that emerged toward the middle of the nineteenth century.
Alma J. Payne (Advisor)

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kosinski, M. K. (1978). American Culture as System: A Methodological Inquiry [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463048518364

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kosinski, Mark. American Culture as System: A Methodological Inquiry. 1978. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463048518364.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kosinski, Mark. "American Culture as System: A Methodological Inquiry." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1978. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463048518364

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)