Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times / Selected Proceedings from The

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society

editors Eleftheria Deltsou Maria Papadopoulou e-book (pdf) Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times / Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society editors: Eleftheria Deltsou Maria Papadopoulou design: Yorgos Rimenidis publisher:

The Hellenic Semiotics Society Ελληνική Σημειωτική Εταιρία

isbn 978-618-82184-0-6 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society Contents

Preface ...... 11 Introduction ...... 12

PLENARY SPEECHES

Jean-Marie Klinkenberg Thinking the Novelty ...... 16 Alexandros Ph. Lagopoulos Continuities, discontinuities and ruptures in the history and theory of semiotics ...... 30 Farouk Y. Seif Resilience and Chrysalis Reality: Navigating Through Diaphanous Space and Polychronic Time ...... 52 Göran Sonesson The Eternal Return of the New. From Cultural Semiotics to Evolutionary Theory and Back Again ...... 68

Κάριν Μπόκλουντ-Λαγοπούλου Γιατί η Σημειωτική; ...... 88

SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES Mari-Liis Madisson, Andreas Ventsel Analysis of Self-descriptions of Estonian Far Right in Hypermedia ...... 102

Joseph Michael Gratale The ‘War on Terror’ and the re-codification of war ...... 112 Emile Tsekenis ‘African modernity’: Witchcraft, ‘Autochthony’, and transformations in the conceptualizations of ‘individual’ and ‘collective identity’ in Cameroon ...... 122 Sofia Kefalidou, Periklis Politis Identity Construction in Greek TV News Real-Time Narratives on Greek Financial Crisis ...... 134 Anthony Smyrnaios Discerning the Signs of the Times: The role of history in conspiracism ...... 144 Όλγα Παντούλη Ο ‘αριστερός’ και ο ‘ανατολίτης’ σύζυγος στις αφηγήσεις γυναικών επιστημόνων: διαδικασίες επιτέλεσης του φύλου τους ...... 152 Μαριάννα Ψύλλα, Δημήτριος Σεραφής H ανάλυση ενός γεγονότος μέσα από τον πολυσημικό λόγο των εφημερίδων: Μία μεθοδολογική και πολιτική προσέγγιση του Δεκέμβρη του 2008 ...... 160 Αλεξία Καπραβέλου Ο ρατσισμός σήμερα μέσα από τη σημειωτική ανάλυση ρεπορτάζ εφημερίδων ...... 170

SPACE AND/IN SOCIETY Eleftheria Deltsou Salonica Other Ways – Otherwise’: A Mirror-λ letter and heterotopias of an urban experiment ...... 186 Fotini Tsibiridou, Nikitas Palantzas Becoming Istanbul: a dictionary of the problematics of a changing city; inside critique of significant cultural meanings ...... 196

6 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times Kώστας Γιαννακόπουλος Αναφομοίωτες διαφορές, «εξευγενισμός» και πόλη ...... 206

Ιορδάνης Στυλίδης Η Βιτρίνα ως ελκυστής σημασίας ...... 216

Δήμητρα Χατζησάββα Αναδυόμενες έννοιες για τον χωρικό σχεδιασμό ...... 226

Θεοδώρα Παπίδου Μεταγραφές ψηφιακού υλικού στον αρχιτεκτονικό σχεδιασμό ...... 236

Κωνσταντίνος Μωραΐτης Τοπία σημαίνοντα ...... 248

Νεφέλη Κυρκίτσου Η ολίσθηση των σημασιών στην τοπική θεωρία του Jacques Lacan .. 260

Ανθία Βερυκίου Τόποι απουσίας και Τοπολογικά τοπία ...... 270

VISUAL CUTLURES George Damaskinidis Are University Students Followers of the World’s Semiotic Turn to the Visual? ...... 284 Dimitrios Koutsogiannis, Vassiliki Adampa, Stavroula Antonopoulou, Ioanna Hatzikyriakou, Maria Pavlidou (Re)constructing Greek classroom space in changing times ...... 294

Polyxeni Manoli A multimodal approach to using comics in EFL classrooms ...... 308 Αικατερίνη Τάτση, Μαρία Μακαρού Πολυτροπικά πολιτισμικά παλίμψηστα: η περίπτωση ενός κόμικ ...... 318 Αναστασία Φακίδου, Απόστολος Μαγουλιώτης Σημεία και κώδικες: Πώς αντιλαμβάνονται τα παιδιά τη γλώσσα εικόνων που αναπαριστούν την παιδική ηλικία; ...... 332 Έφη Παπαδημητρίου, Δήμητρα Μακρή Πολυτροπική κοινωνική σημειωτική προσέγγιση στη δημιουργία νοημάτων-σημείων από μαθητές/τριες της πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης ...... 346 Θεοφάνης Ζάγουρας Ο σχεδιασμός πολυτροπικών κειμένων για το γλωσσικό μάθημα στο Δημοτικό Σχολείο ...... 360 Dimitra Christidou Does pointing in the museum make a point? A social semiotic approach to the museum experience ...... 374 Παρασκευή Κερτεμελίδου Οι μετασχηματισμοί του μουσείου τέχνης στην εποχή της κατανάλωσης ...... 386

ART Eirini Danai Vlachou The Beatles Paradigm. Transcending a collection of ‘ropey’, scrappy, multi-cultural breadcrumbs into a whole new semiosphere ...... 398 Μαίη Κοκκίδου, Χριστίνα Τσίγκα Η κουλτούρα των βιντεοκλίπ: η περίπτωση των μουσικών βιντεοκλίπ δια-τροπικής ακρόασης ...... 408 Angeliki Avgitidou Art imitating protest imitating art: performative practices in art and protest ...... 420

Spiros Polimeris, Christine Calfoglou Some thoughts on the semiotics of digital art .. 430 Χρύσανθος Βούτουνος, Ανδρέας Λανίτης Η Σημειο-αισθητική προσέγγιση της Βυζαντινής τέχνης ως Εικονική Κληρονομιά ...... 440 Άννα Μαρία Παράσχου Τοπογραφία διάρρηξης: Φωτογραφικές απεικονίσεις πολέμου από τον Simon Norfolk, ως μια αφήγηση ανατροπής ...... 454

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society 7 Pirjo Kukkonen Signs of times and places in Aki Kaurismäki’s films. The existential subject and the semiotic modalities of being and doing ...... 466

Christina Adamou Swarming with cops ...... 478 Yvonne Kosma Picturing ‘Otherness’: Cinematic Representations of ‘Greekness’ in “My Big Greek Fat Wedding” ...... 488 Χρήστος Δερμεντζόπουλος, Θανάσης Βασιλείου Προσεγγίζοντας μια αφαιρετική κινηματογραφική μορφή: “Το Δέντρο της Ζωής”, του Terrence Malick ...... 498

Νίκος Τερζής Η σημειωτική μέθοδος ανάλυσης μιας ταινίας ...... 508

Ηρώ Λάσκαρη Σύστημα γενεσιουργής οπτικοακουστικής αφήγησης ...... 524

Luiz Carlos Migliozzi Ferreira de Mello Viagra: New Social Forms ...... 536 Nikos Barkas, Maria Papadopoulou ‘The house of our dreams’: A decade of advertisements in building magazines ...... 544

Stamatia Koutsoulelou Advertising strategies in times of crisis: A semiotic analysis ...... 560 Περικλής Πολίτης, Ευάγγελος Κουρδής Κοινωνιόλεκτοι σε ελληνικές τηλεοπτικές διαφημίσεις. Η περίπτωση της «γλώσσας των νέων» ...... 572 Ευριπίδης Ζαντίδης Αναδυόμενες ταυτότητες και εθνικότητα σ’ ένα φλιτζάνι κυπριακού καφέ ...... 588 Ελένη Συκιώτη, Γενοβέφα Ζαφειρίδου Σημειωτικές παρατηρήσεις στη σύγχρονη διαφήμιση: Η περίπτωση της εμπορικής και της κοινωνικής διαφήμισης ...... 600

Βασιλική Κέλλα Η διαφήμιση ως λεκτική πράξη ...... 612

LANGUAGE, TEXTS AND TEXTUALITIES George Androulakis, Roula Kitsiou, Carolina Rakitzi, Emmanuel Zerai Linguistic cityscape revisited: inscriptions and other signs in the streets of Volos ...... 622 María José Naranjo, Mercedes Rico, Gemma Delicado, Noelia Plaza Constructing new identities around Languages and Media ...... 634 Ιωάννα Μωραΐτου, Ελευθερία Τσέλιου Ανάλυση Λόγου και μεταμοντέρνες προσεγγίσεις στη συμβουλευτική / ψυχοθεραπεία: η «στροφή στο λόγο» ...... 642 Φίλιππος Τεντολούρης, Σωφρόνης Χατζησαββίδης «Κατασκευάζοντας» το κείμενο και τον συγγραφέα: οριοθετημένα και μη-οριοθετημένα σημειωτικά πλαίσια της σχολικής γλωσσικής δημιουργίας ...... 652 Βάσια Τσάμη, Δημήτρης Παπαζαχαρίου, Άννα Φτερνιάτη, Αργύρης Αρχάκης H πρόσληψη της γλωσσικής ποικιλότητας σε κείμενα μαζικής κουλτούρας από μαθητές της Ε’ και ΣΤ’ Δημοτικού ...... 664 Αναστασία Χριστοδούλου, Ιφιγένεια Βαμβακίδου, Αργύρης Κυρίδης ‘Lego- Legends of CHIMA’. Κοινωνιοσημειωτική ανάλυση της συναρμολόγησης του θρύλου ...... 676 Μαρίνα Σούνογλου, Αικατερίνη Μιχαλοπούλου Η Σημειωτική στη διαμόρφωση της έννοιας του πολίτη στο νηπιαγωγείο ...... 686

8 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times BODIES & MINDS Fotini Bonoti, Plousia Misailidi Graphic signs of jealousy in children’s human figure drawings ...... 700 Eirini Papadaki The Semiotics of Children Drawings, A Comparative Study of Art, Science and Children Drawing ...... 708 Myrto Chronaki Changing practices and representations of birth and birth-spaces in maternity clinics and at home ...... 720 Athanasios Sakellariadis Metaphor as a Hermeneutical Design of the Mental Phenomena: The role of narrative speech in the cognitive field of the Philosophy of Mind ...... 730

Anita Kasabova A semiotic attempt to analyze delusions ...... 738

LITERATURE

Miltos Frangopoulos The Task of the Translator ...... 756 Fitnat Cimşit Kos, Melahat Küçükarslan Emiroğlu Reality as a Manner of Transformation ...... 766 Angela Yannicopoulou, Elita Fokiali Transmedia Narratives for Children and Young Adults ...... 778 Ioanna Boura The expression of worldviews through narratives and chronotopes of liquid times ...... 790 Evgenia Sifaki The “Poetic Subject” as “Subject of Semiosis” in C. P. Cavafy’s “Going back Home from Greece” ...... 798

Αγγελική Γιαννικοπούλου Το εικονογραφημένο βιβλίο χωρίς λόγια ...... 808 Μαρίνα Γρηγοροπούλου Κόσμοι που συγκρούονται και σημεία των τεχνών: οι «Σκοτεινές Τέχνες» του Νίκου Κουνενή ...... 818 Σοφία Ιακωβίδου Εις τα περίχωρα της δυστοπίας: αφηγήσεις της κρίσης στη λογοτεχνία για νέους ...... 826

Πέγκυ Καρπούζου Το παιχνίδι και η ηθική της μετανεωτερικής συμβίωσης ...... 834 Αγλαΐα Μπλιούμη Ρευστοί καιροί και μεταφορές – Σημειωτικές προσεγγίσεις στη λογοτεχνία της ενωμένης Γερμανίας ...... 844 Παναγιώτης Ξουπλίδης Ένας οικείος δαίμονας: προς μια προσέγγιση του σημείου της λογοτεχνικής γάτας σε 7 κείμενα παιδικής λογοτεχνίας του Χρήστου Μπουλώτη ...... 856

Conference Credits ...... 868

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society 9 Signs of times and places in Aki Kaurismäki’s films. The existential subject and the semiotic modalities of being

ART and doing

Pirjo Kukkonen University of Helsinki [email protected]

Abstract The Finnish film director and writer Aki Kaurismäki’s (b. 1957) film Lights in the Dusk (2006) deals with the universal theme of solitude and alienation using a special film communication, narrativité immobile. The minimalistic dialogues are synchronised with static faces, glances and gestures as well as the minimalistic interior scenes; the choices of colours, the music and the silences express the moods, as well as the slow motions, and the lack of the natural variations and modalities of communication. The semioethical message in Kaurismäki’s films is to understand the subject in a social world, the dialogue between me (Moi) and society, the social within us (Soi), and a subject provided with full modal competence. In studying all forms of communication in semiosis, semiotics is working for better understanding and self-understanding, avoiding misunderstanding. Semiotics is a method to analyze how Kaurismäki uses his minimalistic language and his narrativité immobile.

Keywords Aki Kaurismäki’s films, narrativité immobile , existential subject , modalities , semioethics

466 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times Subject and existence in semiosis – narrativité immobile The Finnish film director and writer Aki Kaurismäki (b. 1957) deals in his film Lights in the Dusk (2006) with the existential states of loneliness and alienation, that is, with the role of the subject which constitutes a central semiotic issue of understanding, misunderstanding, and self-understanding. If we recall the theme of the 10th IASS/AIS World Congress of Semiotics, Culture of Communication – Communication of Culture in A Coruña, Spain, in September 2009, as well as the theme of the 11th World Congress in Nanjing, China in 2012, Global Semiotics: A Bridge Linking Different Civilizations, these conference themes provide a natural continuation of the theme Communication: Under- standing/Misunderstanding of the 9th IASS/AIS World Congress of Semiotics in Helsin- ki and Imatra, Finland, June 2007. The Helsinki congress had the motto which was ad- dressed by Mr President Martti Ahtisaari, the Patron of the conference, who in 2008 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as international mediator: “Semiotics studies all forms of communication. By analyzing cross-cultural misunderstandings it promotes the self-understanding of mankind.” Understanding and self-understanding as a means of avoiding misunderstanding between people and nations is a theme of high relevance. In the following discussion of the theme Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times, I will take up some modalities, the existential relations to reality, of the subject in Kau- rismäki’s film Lights in the Dusk (2006) as existential issues, as Tarasti (2000, p. 92) states about modalities: “the subject of an ethical interpretation is above all, in the semiotic sense, a subject provided with full modal competence, a subject who ’will’ (vouloir), ’can’ (pouvoir), ’knows’ (savoir), ’must’ (devoir), and ’believes’ (croire)”; other modalities as ’being’ (être) and ’doing’ (faire; désir, ‘want’) belong to the basic modalities (cf. Greimas, 1983, passim; Tarasti, 2000, p. 90; Tarasti, 2012, pp. 10–27, 457). From the existential perspective, Tarasti discusses the complex field of ethical values with reference to the classification of ethical values in Georg Henrik von Wright’s book The Varieties of Goodness (1963). Concerning the role of the subject and the modal competence, my focus lies on Kaurismäki’s film Lights in the Dusk (2006) with the theme of loneliness. The reason for this choice is that the film concludes Kaurismäki’s Helsinki loser trilogy in which the first film, Drifting Clouds (1996) deals with the theme of unemployment, and the second, The Man without a Past (2002) with the theme of homelessness. The film Lights in the Dusk (2006) explores the existential themes of solitude and alienation in a fictive place described as laitakaupunki, ‘dusk’, localized in an actually existing place in Helsinki called Ruoholahti (‘Grass bay’), but still the place becomes a space difficult to recognize; the place is everywhere; the loneliness of human existence is a universal existential issue. The semioethical (cf. Petrilli & Ponzio, 2003, passim) message in Kaurismäki’s films is how to understand the subject in a global world, the subject in a dialogue between the opposites good–bad, right–wrong, the subject in a micro world vs. a macro world. In this context, the role of the subject is crucial, as Tarasti (2000, p. 88) states: “Without the concept of subject there is no ethical choice.”

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society 467 Lights in the Dusk reminds us of and alludes to Charlie Chaplin’s (1889–1977) descrip- tion of the recession in 1930s, the filmCity Lights (1931); these two films both share the critical attitude to society, but Kaurismäki’s film is much more ‘dusk’ and much more melancholic. Robert Bresson’s (1907–1999) influence on Kaurismäki’sLights in the Dusk is also apparent, as well as the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s (1922–1975) films, presented in a collection with the Finnish title Laitakaupungin valot ‘Lights in the Dusk’ from 1989 (Pasolini, 1989, passim; cf. Virtanen, 2006). While Pasolini’s dusks are the poor quarters of Rome in the 1960s, Kaurismäki’s laitakaupunki exists in our time; in the postmodern society, dusk meaning also ‘darkness’ and ‘gloom’, in Ruoholahti with big business buildings, places for high technology, security companies, and the dark and cold industrial harbour, a sign of coming and going. The word laitakaupunki also means ‘outskirts of a town, back streets’ and becomes a sign for alienation. In Lights in the Dusk, the protagonist Koistinen (without a first name), a lonesome security guard, meets Mirja, who seems to be an innocent, blond beauty but is, in fact, involved in criminal activities and tries to use Koistinen for the purposes of her criminal gang. Koistinen is a good hearted man (Mirja refers to him in her gang as surkimus, ‘geek, lame duck’), who nevertheless believes (croire) in love and goodness (the theme of light), but he is over and over again shown that he, as an individual, has no power (pouvoir), no oppor- tunities to exist (être) in the big and dark world which is cruel (the theme of the dusk). At his working place, a security company, Koistinen is the object for bullying, cheating, and neglecting, he is an outsider who nobody wants to be with. He is also an object for power and violence in the harsh society and its hidden structures, which are shown in the consequences of them in ‘the existential fates of the subject’, as Tarasti (2006, p. 91) puts it. Koistinen is exploited; his employer takes advantage of him, the girl Mirja and her criminal friends only want to use him for their purposes; the human moral values mean nothing in the world of money and the system of power. Nevertheless, Koistinen has dreams, and believes (croire) in a better future; he wants to (vouloir, désir) get genu- ine love, a better apartment, a security company of his own; but everything goes wrong when he becomes a victim of violence.

Figure 1. Alone together: Mirja (Maria Järvenhelmi) and Koistinen (Janne Hyytiäinen) meet up in Lights in the Dusk (2006). Photo: Marja- Leena Hukkanen ©Sputnik. (Lights in the Dusk, 2006, DVD Chapter 6, 30:08).

468 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times Miscommunication and misunderstanding, as well as the themes of solitude and alienation are present in the film not only between persons, particularly Koistinen and Mirja; Koistinen is a loser working as a guard, as a subject in the world of economic power, and criminal power, he is a victim of various hidden systems (he must act in a special way, devoir), he is the subject of the modality of non-pouvoir lacking the ability and therefore the ‘will’ (vouloir) to defence himself against people exploiting him. The fear of the power is shown in choices of the places, the streets and buildings, in the lighting, in the shooting, in the music (e.g. Argentinean tango, and Finnish tango (on the themes of the tango, cf. Kukkonen, [1996] 2003, passim), rock music, opera, etc.), and in the poetic film space expressing the geography of fear, darkness and shadows in the nights, darkness and buildings of glass and metal, underground stairs, emphasising the alienation of a person like Koistinen. One of the film scenes in the beginning of the film deals with Koistinen who listens to a radio programme on the behavior of a scorpion, a hint to the system of people with moral or non-moral power vs. a loser. The music in the film represents a story of melancholy and stresses the modalities of being (être) and doing (faire, or non-faire), coming, and returning – the big cities and their solitude and dangerous places are synchronised in the various signs and sign systems to a semiosis. From the Argentinean tangos, Volver (1934) in the beginning of the film with the themes of darkness and dusk to El dia que me quieras (1934) as a representation for hope and light in the end of the film Lights( in the Dusk (2006), the narration moves between the opposites of light and darkness, light and dusk:

Volver (1934) Volver, Yo adivino el parpadeo con la frente marchita, de las luces que a lo lejos, las nieves del tiempo van marcando mi retorno... platearon mi sien... Son las mismas que alumbraron, Sentir... que es un soplo la vida, con sus palidos reflejos, que veinte años no es nada, hondas horas de dolor. que febril la mirada Y aunque no quise el regreso, errante en las sombras siempre se vuelve al primer amor. te busca y te nombra. La quieta calle donde el eco dijo: […] Tuya es su vida, tuyo es su querer, (Música: Carlos Gardel, Letra: Alfredo Le Pera bajo el burlón mirar de las estrellas Volver (1934), Lights in the Dusk, 2006, Chap- que con indiferencia hoy me ven volver... ter 1)

In addition to Argentinean tangos, Kaurismäki also uses two Finnish traditional tangos in the film. These tangos express existential emptiness, the deepest melancholy and longing – the complete loneliness and oblivion of Koistinen and describes the inner land- scape through the outer, the autumn scene in the song lyrics. The melancholic Finnish tango expresses human solitude, loneliness and melancholy in the lyrics of Sä et kyyneltä nää (1942), ‘You won’t see a tear / Though my heart is crying’. Furthermore, the Finnish

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society 469 tango Syyspihlajan alla (1942) ’Under the Autumn Rowan Tree’ represents the existential loneliness, longing, and deep melancholy (cf. Kukkonen, [1996] 2003, pp. 93–229). On the surface, these tango lyrics and the music seem to be trivial and sentimental, but the knowledge of Finnish culture gives information of these texts and their meanings particularly during the war years and onwards in Finnish society. The old Finnish tango sing- ers are icons of Finnish culture, icons who have sang about melancholy and nostalgia, love and longing, loneliness and alienation. The music refers to dull melancholic states of human existence (the dusk), but in the film, a slight hope is manifested in one person Aila, the girl in the chip shop (as well as in a young black boy and a homeless dog). When Koistinen has been left alone by the betrayer Mirja, he goes drunken and unhappy to Ai- la’s chip shop, and Aila is the one who understands him and says: “Wait. I close and take you home” (Lights in the Dusk, 2006, Chapter 7, 32:10). Aila represents the light. However, Koistinen does not pay attention to her and is not at all interested in her. It is not until the last scene of the film that he appears to break his loneliness. Typical for Kaurismäki’s film aesthetics is that he plays with language and culture, combines signs and sign systems; he uses names, myths, and music, as well as allusions and intertextual references to other films (e.g. Robert Bresson, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard; cf. von Bagh, 2006, pp. 159–166, 183–200, 201–213). Kaurismäki’s Lights in the Dusk (2006) is a melancholic and apocalyptic film, but there is, as Tarasti (2006, p. 91) points out, ‘the principle of hope’ (cf. Ernst Bloch) in the last repliques when Koistinen is almost dying after being a victim for violence, a young black boy with a homeless dog (both representing innocence) tells Aila that Koistinen is dying, Aila finds Koistinen near the harbour and he says to her: “Jää tänne.” ‘Stay here’, Aila says: “Älä kuole.” ‘Don’t die’. And, Koistinen answers: “En minä tähän kuole.”, ’I won’t die here’, but has also the polysemous meaning ‘I won’t die of this’. The last scene is showing the first real possibility, the first connection and hope when Koistinen’s and Aila’s hands meet, a sign of hope and life, and the Argentinean tango El día que me quieras ends the film. The silences and the short dialogues combined with glances and body language (extra-linguistic features), as well as hypercorrect language and the motion of the film as narrativité immobile (Tarasti, 2006, pp. 91, 96), the lighting in the places and sur- roundings emphasize the semiosis; the slow tempo and the faces not expressing very much are representing a surrealistic situation denoting the distance between people; the whole film with its image, sound, and language, verbal and non-verbal signs, is an icon of solitude and alienation. In a scene from a bar, the melancholic Russian song Ogonek (1996) with M. Isakovski’s lyrics is performed to emphasize the states of the existential subject. Actually, every sign in Kaurismäki’s films is filled with meaning and significance. In the Finnish music choices of the film, the Finnish tango texts have hidden cultural meanings reflecting the Finnish culture and society, particularly from the 1940s, the war years with deep melancholy and losses, and longing. But, the universal emotion

470 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times is melancholy. Moreover, the Finnish rock group Melrose playing Rich Little Bitch (2004) and In the Meanwhile (2005) becomes a special semiosis in the scene of the film. The more dramatic scenes are represented in the Swedish opera singer Jussi Björling’s song from G. Puccini’s Tosca, La Fancinella del West, and Manon Lescaut. In the latter part of the film, A. Renard’s and J. B. Clement’s French songLe Temps des Cerises describes the idea of the subject. The film ends, as mentioned above, with the Argentinean tangoEl día que me quieras (1934), the end scene which functions as the maxim of hope. In the film Lights in the Dusk (2006), Kaurismäki uses 15 various music pieces to present the whole semiosis of this film as well as the existential states of man; in each of these music pieces the existential theme of solitude of the subject is emphasized.

Language, dialogue, and silence as communication In spite of the dark and melancholic tones in the filmLights in the Dusk (2006), there are also, as always in Kaurismäki’s trilogy, glances of hope, a good person representing the other opposite, the other possibility, hope and goodness, or the innocence as is represented by the young boy and the homeless dog looking ‘the system of global power and violence’ straight in the eyes. Kaurismäki tells the story with a special language and dialogue, which is short, elliptic and minimalistic; we could call this communication “Aki’s language”, as Tuomas Kainulainen (1999, passim; 2000, pp. 1, 3, 6) described it in his analysis of the subtitles of Kaurismäki’s Finnish films into French. The semiosis of film language in space and time in Lights in the Dusk (2006) with various multimodal displays has also been an objective for my intersemiotic analysis, i.e. the dialogues between various sign systems in the film. The short Finnish speech in the dialogue between the audible and the visual – expressed by the English subtitles (written texts), aims to de- scribe the semiotic subject Koistinen in the film in his HeideggerianDasein , in his existential states, to understand the alien in a social world, also through the additive subtitles of the film which help us to understand the film. From the translational point of view, the short repliques embody actually no challenge translated from Finnish into English as subtitles, which have to be as “plain” and elliptic as the original Finnish repliques with their cinematographic and aesthetic function. Even the idea of the cultural or intertextual links in the images may not be easy to grasp due to the scenes, where Kaurismäki plays with many allusions and intertextual references. Dialogues in Kaurismäki’s films are undressed from natural modalities of speech such as the flow of sequences, speech act particles, politeness modalities, natural in- correct features of speech, etc. Kaurismäki’s repliques are exaggerated correct in order to convey various features such as irony (cf. Söderholm, 2008, passim), dry humour, and a language which is free from emotions and sentimentality, that is to say, function as icons for loneliness and alienation. Aki Kaurismäki’s language and dialogue are an elliptic, a minimalistic, and a surrealistic way to express repliques (cf. Buñuel), as

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society 471 Tarasti (2006, pp. 96–97) also exemplifies, and calls Kaurismäki’s film communication, narrativité immobile, in other words, with the lack of changes in human communication, speech acts which lack gestures and mimics of natural communication. Typical for Kaurismäki are these hypercorrect repliques, quasi humoristic means of art. Structures of speech, gestures and prosody go hand in hand in speech acts, but Kaurismäki has undressed speech from almost all modalities in order to stress the theme of loneliness and alienation by this aesthetic function of the film. From the subtitling point of view (cf. Sahlin 2001, pp. 247–257), in Kaurismäki’s film Lights in the Dusk (2006) there is no need for condensation of the Finnish speech acts and dialogues in English subtitles, i.e. to shorten the repliques to match the authentic speech into two lines as subtitles. The film as a poetic text gets the additive form in subtitles expressing the speech lines and the content mediated from Finnish to another language, that is, from speech mode to written text mode (subtitles). When subtitling films, the film as an aesthetic whole is a typically semiotic text type with various texts within a film text, where interpretation and translation between various sign systems are dialogic. Hence, subtitles have the characteristics of written mode, additive mode, and synchronous mode. Subtitles have to be synchronized with the restrictions of space and time (reading time 2–6 sec/2 lines, 30–35 characters; film ca. 40 characters/line; tv/video 30–35 characters/line), and hence, the film as a whole is a dialogue between audible and visible signs and sign systems; sound, image, and written text – synchronized to produce an aesthetic whole with its aesthetic goal and function. In various subtitling strategies (cf. Kukkonen, 2008b, pp. 47–78) in the actual film, from an intersemiotic perspective (cf. Jakobson’s modes of translation, 1959, pp. 428– 435), subtitling has to take into account all relevant sign relations in a film as an aesthetic and a narrative whole. Snell-Hornby (2006, p. 90) states the following: “Translations for stage and screen are highly complex activities…, and as multi-facetted manifestations of a cultural transfer both within and beyond language, they will remain a vital issue of the interdiscipline of Translation Studies”. Discussing the translation of multimodal texts, that is, texts beyond language, Snell-Hornby (2006, pp. 84–90) takes up various concepts of these; multimedial texts are “audiovisual”, such as film, television, and subtitling, multimodal texts have different modes of verbal and nonverbal expression (stage translation, drama, opera, etc.). In these texts, the role of the text as an aesthetic whole is central and is discussed as actability, performability, speakability, and singability. Se- miotic strategies that are used when translating films – a multimedial and multimodal text type – have to take into account, as I have summarized it, the following aspects from the viewpoint of relevance:

1. Relevance and redundance strategy – semantic-cognitive choices, verbal strategies – syntactic, semantic and pragmatic choices 2. Auditive strategies – speech, para-linguistic signs, sound effects, music

472 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times 3. Visual strategies – image, motion, lighting, shooting, extra-linguistic signs 4. Temporal strategies – time restrictions in the multimedial text type (reading time 2–6 sec./line) 5. Spatial strategies – space and time synchronized in the multimedial text type (tv/video ca. 30–35 characters/line; film ca. 40 characters/line). (Kukkonen, 2008b, 67)

In Kaurismäki’s film the dialogues are short, as mentioned above, easy to render in English. But the rhythm of the film subtitles have to be synchronized with image, sound, and spoken text. Due to the restricted time (reading time) and space in subtitling films, usually, speech dialogues can or must be neutralized; slang, or dialect can disappear, swear words become softer, long politeness expressions are reduced to shorter ones. Subtitling produces condensed and shortened language due to the synchronized mode of translation, that is, where the length of the visual text specifies the length of the replique. The rhythm of the poetic and aesthetic text is therefore of crucial importance. But, as we can see in the following extract, it is hard to understand the dialogue without the image, sound, and spoken mode in Kaurismäki’s film: Finnish original repliques: English subtitles: DVD Chapter 6 DVD Chapter 6 29:50 29:50 Ota…ne on tuoreita. Take one. They’re fresh. 29:55 29:55 Paisti on uunissa. The roast is in the oven. 30:00 30:00 Mukava asunto. Nice place. 30:03 30:03 Tää on vaan tilapäinen. It’s just temporary. 30:34 30:34 Koistinen… Koistinen. 30:37 30:37 Haluat lopettaa? You want to end this? 30:39 30:39 Äitini on sairastunut. My mother’s ill. I must travel. Minun täytyy matkustaa. 30:44 30:44 Milloin? When? 30:47 30:47 Nyt heti. Right now. 30:50 30:50 Soitan sinulle. I’ll call you.

(Cf. the image above, Light in the Dusk, 2006, DVD Chapter 6, 30:08)

It is important that the subtitles are as “plain” as the speech is in Kaurismäki’s film language. The minimalistic dialogues are synchronised with static faces, glances and gestures as well as the minimalistic interior scenes; the choices of colours express the moods; the music and the silences (cf. silence as an existential sign, Kukkonen, 2008a,

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society 473 pp. 168–189), the slow motions, and the lack of the natural variations and modalities of communication. This type of communication can be characterized as mentioned above by the concept of narrativité immobile. Kaurismäki’s films use language modes with elliptic and minimalistic dialogues, with short and few words, a surrealistic way of repliques, a film language we can call Aki Kaurismäki’s language (cf. Bunuel). The most important thing in a poetic text is to get the form of the dialogue and the content mediated from Finnish to another language (cf. Kainulainen 1999, 2000 on subtitling Kaurismäki into French, and Söderholm 2008 on subtitling Kaurismäki into English and German, especially studying allusions).

Semiosis of visible and invisible signs – visual aesthetics and semioethics

“… to open the universe more to express, the need for opening the universe more in order to be, to know, to understand...”

As a semiotic whole, the filmLights in the Dusk (2006) consists of a visual and an audible sign system, an aesthetic sign system, a rhythmical sign system, a cultural sign system, i.e. the film as a whole as semiosis, the act of signification, where the dialogue between these various sign systems express subject and his modalities in existence (être). The image of the film is a universal language, a visual Esperanto, as Aumont et al. (1983, p. 112) write. As Kainulainen (2000, pp. 2–3) states, the culturally bound aspects of the visual aesthetics can be understood (partially) by the translated texts, the subtitles, and the function of these is to contribute to “the illusion of understanding”, an expression which often is repeated in subtitling. However, the allusions and other cultural hints in the film are hidden for the spectators themselves to reveal; allusions and intertextual clues are an intellectual challenge for the receiver. In this film, the scenes with camera showing faces and glances as still lebens are actually even more important than the verbal signs. The tango as a musical genre, as mentioned above, is a sign of loneliness, solitude, and alienation, as is described in the history of the tango when men came from the Argentinean pampas to Buenos Aires in the hope for and the belief of (croire) a better future, but the urban places and times were harsh in the big cities (cf. Kukkonen, [1996] 2003, passim). The themes of Aki Kaurismäki’s films are also harsh but there is always a slight light of hope present, the loyalty, solidarity, and understanding against the pow- erful misunderstanding represented by hidden strong systems; this is also the case in Lights in the Dusk (2006), when Koistinen is knocked down as a victim of violence, there is the light and the hope in the dusk personified by a good person, Aila, who presents the light, and the maxim of hope, the film ending with this Argentinean tango,El dia que me quieras (1934):

474 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times El dia que me quieras (1934) El día que me quieras las estrellas celosas la rosas que engalana. nos mirarán pasar. Se vestirá de fiesta Y un rayo misterioso con su mejor color. hará nido en tu pelo. Y al viento las campanas Luciérnaga curiosa dirán que ya eres mía. ¡que verá...¡que eres mi consuelo..! Y locas las fontanas me contarán tu amor. Música: Carlos Gardel La noche que me quieras Letra: Alfredo Le Pera desde el azul del cielo. (Lights in the Dusk, 2006, DVD Chapter 15)

Music as semiosis and the poetics of space (cf. Bachelard, 1967, passim) in the film, express the existential aspects as is seen from Volver (1934) to El dia que me quieras (1934), as well as the poetics of place in Kaurismäki’s place and space in time as we can state quoting Tarasti (2000, p. 164) in the following way: ’Place’ is a more specific term than ’space’. It is part of space; yet it is a space with borders – in a sense, a space within space. The essence of place requires that it distinguish itself from the space surrounding it, or to put it in Greimasian concepts, it is englobé, surrounded by something else. Therefore, a particular relationship obtains between place and space. Place may symbolize the space surrounding it, functioning as that space’s sign, and some places may transcend the space around them. Insofar as the space where the place occurs is already as such ’symbolic’ – somehow semiotized, as the universe of human activities of the narration always is – the place existing in space is a kind of supersign that alludes to the signs surrounding it. To use Greimas’s terms again, a place is like an isotopy within an isotopy. (Tarasti 2000, p. 164)

The place in Kaurismäki’s film trilogy is situated somewhere in Helsinki, but explic- itly we do not know where, in order to give an illusion of “placelessness”: what happens the subject in Kaurismäki’s films, happens everywhere; the latent and hidden structures and their forces and violence are everywhere; they are global. The geography of fear is everywhere surrounding the existential subject in his solitude. The image of the film, the sounds and the speech in the original language together with subtitles, which provides understanding in another language, form the total semiosis of the film with its aesthetic function and stresses the global message of the film. Aki Kaurismäki’s film trilogy about unemployment, homelessness, and loneliness (cf. also his film Le Havre, 2011) has a global semioethical message with the universal existential themes of understanding, misunderstanding, and self-understanding in the communication of culture, and the culture of communication. In his plenary speech at the 10th IASS/AIS World Congress of Semiotics in A Coruña, Spain, on September 21, 2009, the author Salman Rushdie pondered these themes and ended his talk with the following words on understanding various ideas and the Other: “… to open the universe more to express, the need for opening the universe more in order to be, to know, to understand”. These are the central modalities expressed: being (être) in the world, and

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society 475 knowing, knowing is understanding, understanding is knowing (savoir), in order to be a subject with full modal competence capable to act and handle (faire) in a right way morally and ethically (pouvoir). This is an essential aspect of the subject in our world today. The semioethical aspect (cf. Petrilli & Ponzio, passim), a challenge for semioti- cians to cope with today are values; ‘without the concept of subject there is no ethical choice’. The “real” reality – sein, Schein, shine, and sign discussed by Tarasti (2006, pp. 90–102) in an article on appearance, present structure and existential divergences of the subject – is not of that what is shown, heard or felt but the latent and hidden structure which causes it. Existential behavior is irregular and breaks what is “normal”. Existenti- ality is a divergence of structure, Tarasti (2006, pp. 90–91) states. Kaurismäki’s artistic representation with its epistemological theme shows the existential and semioethical (cf. Petrilli & Ponzio, 2003, passim) patterns of understanding, misunderstanding – and above all – self-understanding; to cut the chain of unemployment, homelessness, and loneliness – and help people connecting each other (not only virtually). In Kaurismäki’s films the principle of hope, however, in the melancholic context, exists and sheds light in the dusk (in our global world), even though the light is slight, but it is a light of hope. Small signs become big signs in his narrativité immobile and his esthétique du film.

References Ahtisaari, M. (2008). The Nobel Peace Prize 2008. Nobelprize.org, http://www.nobelprize.org/ nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2008/press.html. Aumont, J., Bergala, A., Marie, M., & Vernet, M. (1983). Esthétique du film. Paris: Nathan. Bachelard, G. ([1957] 1967). La poétique de l’espace. Bibliothèque de philosophie contemporaine. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Bakhtin, M. M. = Bachtin, M. 1991. Det dialogiska ordet. [The Dialogic Word.] (Swedish trans. Johan Öberg). Gråbo: Bokförlaget Anthropos. Chaplin, Ch., (1931). City Lights. 83 minutes. ©Charles Chaplin Productions. USA. Greimas, A. J., 1983. Du Sens. Essais sémiotiques 2. Paris: Seuil. Jakobson, R., ([1959] 1987). On Linguistic Aspects of Translation. In K. Pomorska & S. Rudy (Eds.), Language in Literature (pp. 428–435). Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: The Belknap Press. Kainulainen, T. (1999). Traduction de films – le cas de L’Akilien. Master’s thesis. University of Turku. French translation and interpreting. (Unpublished.) Kainulainen, T. (2000). Akin kielen kääntäminen ja tulkinta. [Translating and Understanding Aki’s Language.] Kääntäjä–Översättaren, 2/2000, 1, 3, 6. Kaurismäki, A. (1996). Kauas pilvet karkaavat, Drifting Clouds. 97 min. Director and producer Aki Kaurismäki. ©Sputnik Oy. Kaurismäki, A. (2002). Mies vailla menneisyyttä, The Man without a Past. 97 min. Director and producer Aki Kaurismäki. ©Sputnik Oy. Kaurismäki, A. (2006). Laitakaupungin valot, Lights in the Dusk. 78 min. Director and producer Aki Kaurismäki. ©Sputnik Oy. DVD version. English subtitles by M. Lyytikäinen. Kukkonen, P. ([1996] 2003). Tango Nostalgia. The Language of Love and Longing. Finnish Culture in Tango Lyrics Discourses. A Contrastive Semiotic and Cultural Approach to the Tango. 2nd revised edition. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.

476 Changing Worlds & Signs of the Times Kukkonen, P. (2008a). “Silence, Language, and Experience. On the Theory of Subject in Translation of Silence as a Sign System”. In R. S. Hatten, P. Kukkonen, R. Littlefield, H. Veivo & I. Vierimaa (Eds.), A Sounding of Signs. Modalities and Moments in Music, Culture, and Philosophy. Essays in Honor of Eero Tarasti on his 60th Anniversary (pp. 168–189). [= Acta Semiotica Fennica XXX.] International Semiotics Institute at Imatra & Semiotic Society of Finland, Helsinki. Kukkonen, P. (2008b). Semiotiska textningsstrategier i multimodala samspel – TV-programmet Strömsö som semiotiskt rum. [Semiotic Subtitling Strategies in Multimodal Displays.] In I. Sorvali (ed.), XVI Kääntämisen tutkimuksen päivät Oulussa 14.12.2007 (pp. 47–78). Studia Humaniora Ouluensia 6. Oulu: University of Oulu. Pasolini, P. P. (1989). Laitakaupungin valot. Seikkailuretki hänen elokuviensa historiaan. [The Lights of the Dusk. An Adventure into the History of His Films.] In F. Faldini & G. Fofi (Eds.). The Finnish trans. M-L. Mikkola. Helsinki: Mabuse. Sahlin, I. (2001). Tal och undertexter i textade svenska TV-program. Probleminventering och förslag till en analysmodell. [Speech and Intralingual Subtitling in Swedish TV Pro- grammes. Problems Examined and a Suggested Model for Analysis.] [= Nordistica Gothoburgensia 23.] Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Göteborg: University of Göteborg. Petrilli, S., & Ponzio, A. (2003). Semioethica. Rome: Meltemi. Snell-Hornby, M. (2006). The Turns of Translation Studies. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/ Philadelphia. Söderholm, B. (2008). Zur Intertextualität in Aki Kaurismäkis Film Der Mann ohne Vergangenheit. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Wiedergabe von Ironie und Anspielungen in der deutschen Untertitelungen. Master’s Thesis, University of Helsinki, German philology. (Unpublished.) Tarasti, E. (2000). Existential Semiotics. [= Advances in Semiotics.] Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Tarasti, E. (2006). Tutkielma ilmenemisestä – eli läsnäoleva rakenne ja subjektin eksistentiaalisia poikkeamia. [An Essay on Appearance: Present Structure and Existential Divergences of the Subject.] Synteesi, 4/2006, 90–102. Tarasti, E. (2012). Semiotics of Classical Music. How Mozart, Brahms and Wagner Talk to Us. [Semiotics, Communication and Cognition Vol. 10.] Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter Mouton. Virtanen, L. (2006). Laitakaupungin ahdistus. [The Angst of the Dusk.] Helsingin Sanomat, 7.3.2006. von Bagh, P. (2006). Aki Kaurismäki. Traduit du finnois par Anne Colin du Terrail. Photos: Marja- Leena Hukkanen. Locarno: Cahiers du cinéma – Festival international du Film de Locarno. von Wright, G. H. (1963). The varieties of Goodness. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Selected Proceedings from the 10th International Conference of the Hellenic Semiotics Society 477