Abstract

This dissertation attempts a critical appropriation of Paul Ricoeur's language theory from a Christian perspective in order to construct a heuristic model of popular culture. Part I examines Ricoeur's theory of discourse, especially the difference between the virtual language system and language as actual discursive event, and the text as discourse autonomous from the dialogical situation. Exposure to context differentiates discourse from langue. But when discourse is inscribed it becomes durable and opens a world which the reader must interpret, very like popular culture. ;In part II, we examine Ricoeur's theory of the creative center of language, the metaphor. Metaphor can be treated as either an effect of the language system or as a predication between two tensive terms, a discursive synthesis. When the latter is recognized, metaphor's ability to carry meaning, shape the imagination , and convey a tensive reality is revealed. Popular culture, likewise, is seen as a tension, but a tension between the discourse of general revelation and our own cultural discourse. This tension shapes our imaginations and provokes desire. Through popular culture we see the world as our home. Popular culture is a fictive redescription of reality that opens a world to us. ;That world is temporal, so in part III , time is explored using both Ricoeur's analysis of several key philosophies of time as well as a biblical view of time . It is argued that time's story is inscribed into the structure of time, and as such time serves as a "frame-narrative" that surrounds popular culture. Once we have reinterpreted time, Ricoeur's theory of narrative as a mediation of time can likewise be reinterpreted. Using Ricoeur's description of narrative as a three-fold mimesis, parallels are drawn between narrative and popular culture. Popular cultural texts are seen as worlds that we inhabit and that change us. Ricoeur's idea of narrative identity and other key Ricoeurean concepts are used to understand how popular cultural texts shape our individual and collective identity