A Communication Universe: Manifestations of Meaning, Stagings of Significance presents a new theoretical understanding of communication. Igor E. Klyukanov conceptualizes the process of communication in terms of space and time, i.e., as a continuous process of meaningful spatiotemporal transformation. He goes on to examine four fundamental transformations and the four theoretical perspectives on the nature of communication. From the first perspective communication appears to be "pure space," then time comes into play more and more actively, and from the fourth perspective communication appears to be "pure time." Following the fourth transformation communication is seen as returning back to the first stage where it again appears as "pure space;" however, now its reality contains all meanings created in the process of the previous transformations. Based on these four transformations, the process of communication is understood as a universe, meaning "whole," "entire," "turned into one."
About author
Igor E Klyukanov —
Igor E. Klyukanov is professor of communication studies at Eastern Washington University.
Contents
Part One: The Future Behind Us: Perspectives on Communication
Chapter 1. Toward the Nature of Communication: Unforgetting
Communication Unfolding
The Identity (Crisis) of Communication Study
An Impressive Disarray
Chapter 2. Communication Theorizing: Being-(on)-the-Way
The (De)Fault of Ontological Assumptions
A Pathway to/of Communication
Communication as a Moving Experience
All a Matter of Perspective
Part Two: The Staging(s) of Communication
Chapter 3. Up in the Air: Communication as Invocation
The Call of Communication
The Medium is Not the Message
The Noise of Time
Chapter 4. Down the Stream: Communication as Conversation
Communication, Actually
The Presentation of the Other
Communication in Situ
That Which Befalls One
Through the Looking-glass, Darkly
Chapter 5. Of this Earth: Communication as Construction
Terra Firma
Toward the Common Denominator
Playing the Devil's Advocate
Communication as Poetic Justice
Chapter 6. Through the Fire: Communication as Resignation
The (Un)Bearable Lightness of Being
The Gift that Keeps on Giving
The Proteism of Communication
The Author is Dead - Long Live the Author!
To Be and Not to Be
The Present of the World
Part Three: The Past Before Us: Communication Being
Chapter 7. Airy Nothing: Communication as Transformation
Return: Back to the Things Themselves
The Breath of Pleroma
Communion with Eternity
Democracy of Transspecies
Love Equals Communication
Becoming Undead
Chapter 8. Communication: Infinite Return
Figuring It All Out
The Dialectics of (the Study of) Communication
Communication Being Successful
For the Time and Space Being
Reviews
Klyukanov, Igor E. A communication universe: manifestations of meaning, stagings of significance. Lexington Books, 2010. 231p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780739137239; ISBN 9780739137246 pbk. Reviewed in 2011apr CHOICE.
In this complex exploration of communication theory, Klyukanov (Eastern Washington Univ.) asserts that communication is happening in "spacetime"--meaning it is constantly changing, restoring people and making them whole. Rejecting ontology, the author offers seven chapters in which he proposes that communication is a continuously moving process (meaningful experiences happen in "spacetime"); frames the stages of communication as naming via "invocation," "conversation" in the present moment, "construction" of a common world order, and "resignation" via self-awareness and initiation of meaning; asserts that the character of communication is ecological; and emphasizes that the voice of every single person matters. In the final chapter, Klyukanov briefly mentions the ethical position of "first, do no harm" and declares that the universe and communication are consubstantial, both everlasting and ever changing. As James Anderson does in Communication Theory: Epistemological Foundations (CH, Jan'97, 34-2578), Klyukanov analyzes the foundation of theory building in communication but exercises the rather unexpected tangential metaphors of air, water, earth, and fire. This is a book for those interested in investigational communication theory.
Summing Up: Recommended. Researchers only. -- K. L. Majocha, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
— Isaac E. Catt, Isaac E. Catt, Visiting Scholar, Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center at Duquesne University, Fellow, International Communicology Institute, and co-editor, Communicology: The New Science of Embodied Discourse
A meditation on the most fundamental issues of communication, Igor Klyukanov's book is imbued with a rich spirit of humanity. It is an odyssean wandering through the thickets of thought with several surprises and treasures along the way. The reader will reemerge wiser than before.
— John Durham Peters, A. Craig Baird Professor, The University of Iowa
In this erudite and yet strikingly original contribution to the philosophy of communication, Igor E. Klyukanov theorizes communication as an experience of meaning that unfolds through a series of dialectical transformations. Following the author's journey through five "stagings" of communication from instrumental objectivity to blissful unity, we gather nuggets of epigram, etymology, and theoretical insight along the way. Klyukanov addresses the notoriously fragmented field of communication theory as a whole and offers a unifying vision.
— Robert T. Craig, University of Colorado at Boulder
This book provides a systemic way of thinking about communication that is lacking in recent theory. By emphasizing the multi-dimensional and integrated manifestations of communication, how one ‘staging' takes precedence over others under certain guises, or overlaps in other guises, Igor E. Klyukanov reveals what is so often taken for granted or otherwise glossed as essential to meaningful communication.
— Andrew R. Smith, Edinboro University
A novel approach to the process of communication take by Igor Klyukanov in his groundbreaking study "A Communication Universe: Manifestations of Meaning, Stagings of Significance" is visible as soon as one opens the book and glances at the Contents....The major perspective Klyukanov explores in his book is naturalistic and evolutionary - in contrast to the multiplicity of revolutionary "turns" as man-made "stages" pertaining to the history of communication.
— International Journal of Communication
This is a must-read for social and human scientists aline in our discipline.
