Abstract
To the extent that “runaway slave” and “free slave” express the same content, yet one is readily understood and the other is not, the difference exposes a cultural blindness to some of the outdated ways in which oppressive language still operates. This article processes the expression “runaway slave” through several semiotic models to examine its structural incoherence and then explores the ways in which it is paradoxically understood, even so, as functions of racist cognitive frames issuing from white investments in the language. By exposing how the expression presents interdisciplinary issues, the article thereby advances an argument against its unexamined use and proposes an alternative.
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©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Anthropological-semiotics of rhythm and animating modernity in China: A rhythmanalysis of Princess Iron Fan
- Individuating in the dark: Diagrammatic reasoning and attentional shifts
- The free slave paradox
- Size and shape depictions in the manual modality: A taxonomy of iconic devices in Adamorobe Sign Language
- The thematic structure of homepages: An exploratory systemic-functional account
- Revisiting dynamic space in film from a semiotic perspective
- A semiotic analysis of anti-identity construction in fictional narratives from the viewpoint of modeling systems theory
- Rethinking semiotics: Toward a theory of intentional sign
- Two approaches to defining internal, external, and zero-focalization
- Zero sign duality in visual semiotics
- Conceptual embodiment in visual semiotics
- Reading palm-up signs: Neurosemiotic overview of a common hand gesture
- Does one truly need to belong?: A case for the need to meaningfully exist
- Review articles
- Review of Speaking hatefully: Culture, communication, and political action in Hungary
- Exploring stories
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Anthropological-semiotics of rhythm and animating modernity in China: A rhythmanalysis of Princess Iron Fan
- Individuating in the dark: Diagrammatic reasoning and attentional shifts
- The free slave paradox
- Size and shape depictions in the manual modality: A taxonomy of iconic devices in Adamorobe Sign Language
- The thematic structure of homepages: An exploratory systemic-functional account
- Revisiting dynamic space in film from a semiotic perspective
- A semiotic analysis of anti-identity construction in fictional narratives from the viewpoint of modeling systems theory
- Rethinking semiotics: Toward a theory of intentional sign
- Two approaches to defining internal, external, and zero-focalization
- Zero sign duality in visual semiotics
- Conceptual embodiment in visual semiotics
- Reading palm-up signs: Neurosemiotic overview of a common hand gesture
- Does one truly need to belong?: A case for the need to meaningfully exist
- Review articles
- Review of Speaking hatefully: Culture, communication, and political action in Hungary
- Exploring stories