Welcome to Semiosistan!
-
Massimo Leone
Abstract
The article proposes a thought experiment, the creation of a nation entirely composed by semioticians, and wonders what characteristics its inhabitants should have. Beyond the formal requirements of a robust engagement with semiotics, the article concludes that the most important value in this fictional country would be the commitment to approach the world through language, instead of violence, and to believe in the possibility to cultivate a reasonable community of interpreters. A country for semioticians, therefore, is not needed, since they should, on the opposite, venture into the world and spread their message of trust in the reasonability that underlies the human capacity for language.
Abstract
The article proposes a thought experiment, the creation of a nation entirely composed by semioticians, and wonders what characteristics its inhabitants should have. Beyond the formal requirements of a robust engagement with semiotics, the article concludes that the most important value in this fictional country would be the commitment to approach the world through language, instead of violence, and to believe in the possibility to cultivate a reasonable community of interpreters. A country for semioticians, therefore, is not needed, since they should, on the opposite, venture into the world and spread their message of trust in the reasonability that underlies the human capacity for language.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents XIII
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Section 1: Semiotic epistemologies
- Welcome to Semiosistan! 1
- Beyond teleonomy: Towards a biology of semiotic realism 13
- Risky heuristics 39
- The semiotic inquirer and the practice of empirical inquiry 59
- Transdisciplinarity as a solution to the challenges of the contemporary world 75
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Section 2: Contemporary schools of theoretical semiotics
- Notes towards a semiotic theory of learning 87
- Scarcity and meaning: Towards a semiotics of economic transaction 111
- Applied ecosemiotics: Ontological basis and conceptual models 129
- The anthropological dimension of Greimas’ narrative semiotics 151
- What happens? The Zemic model in existential semiotics 169
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Section 3: Applications and practical discussions
- Intermedial narrative as communication media: Imagination, narrative, and selfhood from Peirce’s semiotic perspective 205
- Icons of modernity in belle époque Bucharest 227
- Glimpses into Peircean event imaging: Episode-simulation as a scaffold for right-guessing 249
- Development of agency as semiotic empowerment: A Peircean analysis 273
- On the corposphere: Body, eroticism and pornography 299
- Natural and cultural layers in the discursive becoming of language as a semiotic system 311
- Index 337
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents XIII
-
Section 1: Semiotic epistemologies
- Welcome to Semiosistan! 1
- Beyond teleonomy: Towards a biology of semiotic realism 13
- Risky heuristics 39
- The semiotic inquirer and the practice of empirical inquiry 59
- Transdisciplinarity as a solution to the challenges of the contemporary world 75
-
Section 2: Contemporary schools of theoretical semiotics
- Notes towards a semiotic theory of learning 87
- Scarcity and meaning: Towards a semiotics of economic transaction 111
- Applied ecosemiotics: Ontological basis and conceptual models 129
- The anthropological dimension of Greimas’ narrative semiotics 151
- What happens? The Zemic model in existential semiotics 169
-
Section 3: Applications and practical discussions
- Intermedial narrative as communication media: Imagination, narrative, and selfhood from Peirce’s semiotic perspective 205
- Icons of modernity in belle époque Bucharest 227
- Glimpses into Peircean event imaging: Episode-simulation as a scaffold for right-guessing 249
- Development of agency as semiotic empowerment: A Peircean analysis 273
- On the corposphere: Body, eroticism and pornography 299
- Natural and cultural layers in the discursive becoming of language as a semiotic system 311
- Index 337
