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OverviewDivine Signs is the concluding volume of the ethnographic trilogy about the communicative tensions in everyday American cultural life H. L. Goodall, Jr., began with Casing a Promised Land and continued with Living in the Rock n Roll Mystery. In this final work, the terms for understanding these tensions are found in a historical and mythological drama featuring Power (as the embodiment of the modern), Other (as the embodiment of the postmodern), and Spirit (as the unifying power capable of connecting disparate selves to dangerously fragmented communities). For this study, the localized site of interpretation is in and around Pickens and Oconee Counties, South Carolina, where every day street signs, business advertisements on billboards, signs that announce church themes, Internet postings, and other forms of public communication that invite private meanings are read as rhetorical invitations to participate in these myths and mysteries. Using themes discoverable in such public forms of communication, Goodall deconstructs a variety of communal experiences--from annual community celebrations to weekly therapy sessions in local beauty salons to the fall audience rituals of Clemson University football games--to gain a deeper appreciation of the unifying symbolic orders that enrich the interpretive possibilities of our lives and that serve as signs of our deeply spiritual connections to each other and to the planet. In the last sections of the book, the interplays of Power, Other, and Spirit are read into and against a wide variety of everyday interpretive contexts, from Rush Limbaugh and talk radio to narratives about angels and stories about the transformative powers of spiritual practices in organizations. Goodall then asks the important question: Where are the themes of this mythological drama leading us? In the stunning conclusion, Goodall creates communicative, cultural, and spiritual challenges for us all. Full Product DetailsAuthor: H.L. Goodall Jr (Professor and Head, Department of Communication, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA)Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press Imprint: Southern Illinois University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.90cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.767kg ISBN: 9780809320240ISBN 10: 080932024 Pages: 312 Publication Date: 31 May 1996 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Temporarily unavailable The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationH. L. Goodall, Jr., is a professor and head of the Department of Communication at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The earlier two volumes of Goodall's trilogy, Casing a Promised Land and Living in the Rock n Roll Mystery, are also available from Southern Illinois University Press. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |