Papers by Christopher Lehrich
Signs and Society, 2014
Tōru Takemitsu ð1930-96Þ, dean of Japanese composers, wrote scores for 100 films. In many cases, ... more Tōru Takemitsu ð1930-96Þ, dean of Japanese composers, wrote scores for 100 films. In many cases, he faced the task of giving presence to an unseen, suprahuman force or being. This article deploys musical semiotics and topic theory to examine a gesture I call "distorted iconism," in which an aural resemblance is altered so as to suggest transcendence. I analyze distorted iconism in Takemitsu's film work, looking initially at Kwaidan, Hi-Matsuri, and Woman in the Dunes. In these films, Takemitsu needed to indicate that what we see is insufficient, and used such devices as delayed sonic cues, distorted instrumental sound, and strongly marked static music to create a sacred space in which the unseen and transcendent manifests. I use these examples to set up a close investigation of Ran, in which Takemitsu effects complex layers of meaning that both enrich and subtly contradict the director's vision. 1. I use the term musicology in its broad sense, not as distinct from other fields, since the semiotic approaches discussed here challenge such distinctions. 2. Although Japanese names are natively given with surname first, modern composers, directors, and other artists commonly reverse this. For consistency's sake, I follow this convention with all Japanese names.
Ritual and the Writing Class
Teaching Ritual, 2007
... 4041 classroom as case study of ritual in society, 282283 discussions, 65, 68, 9394, 155 e... more ... 4041 classroom as case study of ritual in society, 282283 discussions, 65, 68, 9394, 155 exercises, 108109, 185 rituals, 7880, 8485 coercion in ritual acts, 21, 104, 184185 cognitive approach to ritual, 154, 161, 168169, 171 ''Cognitive Categories, Cultural Form and ...
Ritual discourse in role-playing games
Retrieved September, 2004
... Virtual Experience correlates well with Ronald Grimes's and Victor Turner's focus o... more ... Virtual Experience correlates well with Ronald Grimes's and Victor Turner's focus on "performance," which ultimately amounts to a notion of total involvement in ritual activity.[7] In ritual, according to ... A nice example is a Rube Goldberg cartoon, though those are deliberately silly. ...
Orphic revenge: The limits of language for a semiotics of religion
Religion, 2013
Abstract This article examines Robert A. Yelle's Semiotics of Religion. The author argues tha... more Abstract This article examines Robert A. Yelle's Semiotics of Religion. The author argues that the project is weakened by an over-privileging of language as the only mode of semiosis. Using the figure of Orpheus and the semiotic exteriority of music, the author suggests that a semiotics of religion must escape this most fundamental logocentrism if it is not simply to perpetuate the ideological gestures Yelle works hardest to expose.
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 2014
Several of the great “founding fathers” of theory of religion discerned a deep connection between... more Several of the great “founding fathers” of theory of religion discerned a deep connection between religion and music, particularly Western “classical” music. Our relatively recent acceptance that “religion” as universal category was an early modern European invention should prompt suspicion that this connection is historically specific. Yet while scholars in many disciplines have recognized the importance of music in Western imagination, modern scholars of religion have largely ignored it. This article surveys three important discussions of music and religion, in Rudolf Otto, Johan Huizinga, and Max Weber, to provide groundwork for rethinking an important, unanswered question. In conclusion, some preliminary remarks are made about reconstituting this question in contemporary theory, using a brief discussion of Igor Stravinsky’sRite of Springto suggest the potential value of treating Western music as a discourse of imagining religion.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2014
To begin, there are statements in this collection that are scriptural in their wisdom. I use the ... more To begin, there are statements in this collection that are scriptural in their wisdom. I use the word "scriptural" advisedly, but there it is: there are thoughts in this collection that feel to me to be valuable unto themselves as poetic observations and usable in perpetuity as pieces of advice passed among students and teachers alike. For example, here are five of Jonathan Z. Smith's rules for the design and practice of a college course: (i) Students should gain some sense of mastery. Among other things, this means read less rather than more. In principle, the students should have time to read each assignment twice. (ii) Always begin with the question of definition, and return to it. (iii) Make arguments explicit. Both those found in the readings and those made in class. (iv) Nothing must stand alone. Comparison opens space for criticism. (v) A student only knows something well if she can apply it to something else. (3) What makes these pieces of advice so usable is their specificity (assign fewer pages, externalize your choices) and gentle pragmatism. All of Jonathan Z. Smith's commandments have this quality of principled attention to detail coupled with a sensitivity to institutional restraints. Another indicative passage reads: "An introductory course is concerned primarily with developing the student's capacities for reading, writing, and speaking-put another way, for interpreting and arguing." Smith encourages teachers not to worry about subject mastery as much as they should be teaching practical communication and interpretive skills. "This is what they are paying for," he continues. "This is what we are paid for. We are
Overture and Finale: Lévi-Strauss, Music, and Religion
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 2011
Abstract Claude Levi-Strauss’s writings are filled with intricate discussions of music, seemingly... more Abstract Claude Levi-Strauss’s writings are filled with intricate discussions of music, seemingly intended to clarify his thinking about myth and ritual. His peculiar, idiosyncratic musical remarks point in surprising directions, posing a significant and continuing challenge to scholars of religion. In an important recent book, music semiologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez explicates Levi-Strauss’s musical ideas and levels a number of strong criticisms. Drawing on the original texts as well as Nattiez’s critique, I argue that while Levi-Strauss is certainly wrong about music, this very wrongness reveals dimensions of his project of considerable importance for our own discipline. Specifically, I find that Levi-Strauss’s conception of myth, as it arises in the context of his somewhat bizarre ideas about contemporary music, raises difficult methodological and ethical questions about particularism and the necessity of comparison.
5. Tarocco and Fugue
The Occult Mind, 2017
The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from Ancient to Modern Times (review)
Renaissance Quarterly, 2007
... For the West, along with the Hebrew Moses and the Greek Plato, there has always been, though ... more ... For the West, along with the Hebrew Moses and the Greek Plato, there has always been, though only seldom on the same level, the Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus. ... The Egyptian Thoth was the first Hermes; prior to the Flood he recorded his knowledge in hiero-glyphs. ...
Magic Rather than Science
An Enterprise Undertaken in Bad Faith
3. The Theater of Hieroglyphs
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Papers by Christopher Lehrich