The Commodified 23, or, Michael Jordan as Text
in Sociology of Sport JournalClick name to view affiliation
Semiotics is employed in an examination of Michael Jordan (the signified) and his uniform number (the signifier). A systematic comparative framework is used to limit the potentially infinite multiplicity of interpretants. Its themes are the way Jordan expresses the modernity-postmodernity division and is, himself an aspect of this cultural characterization. Seven diacritical alternatives are considered: (a) secularism versus immanence; (b) bureaucratization versus decanonization; (c) equality versus diversity; (d) rationality versus intensities; (e) obsession with records versus spectacles; (f) quantification versus fragmentation; and, (g) specialization versus commodification. Treating Jordan as text, as postmodern athlete archetype, leads to a consideration of the commodification of his number, a process in which Jordan himself is transformed into a salable commodity.
Edward G. Armstrong is with the Social Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI 54751.
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