{"title":"Todd Tyner Cronkhite","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"menetekel-book-todd-tyner-cronkhite-9781041347927","title":"Menetekel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMenetekel: The Black Whale and the Semiotics of Doom\u003c\/em\u003e explores a literary and cultural phenomenon known as menetekel—a sign or warning of impending disaster—using Ishmael, the narrator of Herman Melville’s \u003cem\u003eMoby Dick\u003c\/em\u003e, as a guide to understanding how such signs are read, interpreted, and contested. While \u003cem\u003eMoby Dick\u003c\/em\u003e provides the interpretive framework, this book’s focus extends far beyond Melville’s novel to develop a broader theory of semiotic doom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining literary criticism, semiotics, cultural theory, and critical geography, this book traces a cartography of “writing on the wall” in North America, from the Pawnee Buttes of northeastern Colorado to the underground diary of the graffiti artist REVS in the New York City subway. Drawing on Herman Melville, Mikhail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Fredric Jameson, and others, it develops a theory of \u003cem\u003emenetekel\u003c\/em\u003e and applies it to two distinct manifestations of writing “on the wall.” This book argues that \u003cem\u003emenetekel\u003c\/em\u003e is a sign that contains the conditions of its own destruction and derives its meaning from the surface on which it is written. By recasting Ishmael as a literary critic and theorist of interpretation, it offers a new methodology for reading signs, landscapes, monuments, graffiti, and other cultural inscriptions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book will be of interest to scholars and students of literary studies, semiotics, cultural studies, American studies, geography, and media studies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53699386147089,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53699386245393,"sku":"NGR9781041347927","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781041347927.jpg?v=1782846207"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-todd-tyner-cronkhite.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}