Ricoeur, a disciple of Greimas? A case of paradoxical maïeutic
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Anne Hénault
Abstract
In January 1963, Paul Ricoeur praised structuralism in Rome (Ricoeur 1963). In June 1963, during a confrontation with Claude Levi-Strauss that he had organised, on the premises of the journal Esprit, the same Paul Ricoeur entered into a violent rejection of that structural philosophy and then kept the same resentment seemingly forever.
At first, his anathema encompassed Greimassian semiotics until 1979 (see the famous Seminars of rue Parmentier on Narrativity and on History). Then, thanks to a period of private encounters and public debates with Greimas (1980-1989), Ricoeur radically changed his opinion about the achievements of Greimas to the point of not allowing him to step aside (outside?) of what would come to be known as standard semiotics in which he recognised an admirable device for explaining and, hence, understanding, more, the symbolic force of narratives.
Abstract
In January 1963, Paul Ricoeur praised structuralism in Rome (Ricoeur 1963). In June 1963, during a confrontation with Claude Levi-Strauss that he had organised, on the premises of the journal Esprit, the same Paul Ricoeur entered into a violent rejection of that structural philosophy and then kept the same resentment seemingly forever.
At first, his anathema encompassed Greimassian semiotics until 1979 (see the famous Seminars of rue Parmentier on Narrativity and on History). Then, thanks to a period of private encounters and public debates with Greimas (1980-1989), Ricoeur radically changed his opinion about the achievements of Greimas to the point of not allowing him to step aside (outside?) of what would come to be known as standard semiotics in which he recognised an admirable device for explaining and, hence, understanding, more, the symbolic force of narratives.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
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Section 1: Semiotics in the world and academia
- What the humanities are for – a semiotic perspective 3
- Semioethics as a vocation of semiotics. In the wake of Welby, Morris, Sebeok, Rossi- Landi 25
- “General semiotics” as the all-round interdisciplinary organizer – general semiotics (GS) vs. philosophical fundamentalism 45
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Section 2: Semiotics, experimental science and maths
- Semiotics as a metalanguage for the sciences 61
- Mastering phenomenological semiotics with Husserl and Peirce 83
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Section 3: Society, text and social semiotics
- Farewell to representation: text and society 105
- Social semiotics: Towards a sociologically grounded semiotics 121
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Section 4: Semiotics and media
- What relationship to time do the media promise us? 149
- Semiotics and interstitial mediatizations 169
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Section 5: Semiotics for moral questions
- Spaces of memory and trauma: a cultural semiotic perspective 185
- Media coverage of the voices of Colombia’s victims of dispossession 205
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Section 6: Questioning the logic of semiotics
- Sense beyond communication 225
- Semiotic paradoxes: Antinomies and ironies in a transmodern world 239
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Section 7: Manifestoes for semiotics
- Semiosis and human understanding 257
- Culture and transcendence – the concept of transcendence through the ages 293
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Section 8: Masters on past masters
- From Peirce’s pragmatic maxim to Wittgenstein’s language-games 327
- Semiotics as a critical discourse: Roland Barthes’ Mythologies 353
- Ricoeur, a disciple of Greimas? A case of paradoxical maïeutic 363
- Index 377
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Section 1: Semiotics in the world and academia
- What the humanities are for – a semiotic perspective 3
- Semioethics as a vocation of semiotics. In the wake of Welby, Morris, Sebeok, Rossi- Landi 25
- “General semiotics” as the all-round interdisciplinary organizer – general semiotics (GS) vs. philosophical fundamentalism 45
-
Section 2: Semiotics, experimental science and maths
- Semiotics as a metalanguage for the sciences 61
- Mastering phenomenological semiotics with Husserl and Peirce 83
-
Section 3: Society, text and social semiotics
- Farewell to representation: text and society 105
- Social semiotics: Towards a sociologically grounded semiotics 121
-
Section 4: Semiotics and media
- What relationship to time do the media promise us? 149
- Semiotics and interstitial mediatizations 169
-
Section 5: Semiotics for moral questions
- Spaces of memory and trauma: a cultural semiotic perspective 185
- Media coverage of the voices of Colombia’s victims of dispossession 205
-
Section 6: Questioning the logic of semiotics
- Sense beyond communication 225
- Semiotic paradoxes: Antinomies and ironies in a transmodern world 239
-
Section 7: Manifestoes for semiotics
- Semiosis and human understanding 257
- Culture and transcendence – the concept of transcendence through the ages 293
-
Section 8: Masters on past masters
- From Peirce’s pragmatic maxim to Wittgenstein’s language-games 327
- Semiotics as a critical discourse: Roland Barthes’ Mythologies 353
- Ricoeur, a disciple of Greimas? A case of paradoxical maïeutic 363
- Index 377
