Semiotics of Authenticity: A Cultural Approach to Modern Experience and the Self in “Academic Bars”

Yingyu Zang, University of Virginia

Authenticity and the true self have long been the pursuit of enlightened men. However, the meaning of authenticity varies and is obfuscated by political usage of this word. This paper traces the historical vicissitudes of the notion of authenticity and argues that it is a concept generated in modernity while it occupies a symbolic position of anti-modernity. First, authenticity experienced a transformation from an internal ideal to social construction, then to the beyond-social components like self-asserted meaning of experiences. Bringing in literature about tourism, I demonstrate a similar line of changes with empirical studies. The authenticity of tourist sites is first regarded as an internal nature of objects, and then as a social construction, and eventually as an experience of tourists. At last, briefly introducing a case of “academic bar” in China, I propose an approach to grapple with the modern experience of true self entailed by the semiotic understanding of authenticity. Giving and listening to an academic presentation at a bar is beyond everyday experience and thus, it is recognized as authentic. Chinese youth validate their true self in such self-asserted authentic experiences.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 82. Global Modernities and Alternative Epistemologies