Dimensions of zoosemiotics: Introduction
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Timo Maran
Timo Maran (b. 1975) is a senior research fellow at the University of Tartu 〈timo.maran@ut.ee〉. His research interests include theory and semiotics of biological mimicry, theory and history of zoosemiotics, ecosemiotics, and Estonian nature writing. His publications include “Semiotic interpretations of biological mimicry” (2007); and “Towards an integrated methodology of ecosemiotics: The concept of nature-text” (2008).
Abstract
This introductory paper of the zoosemiotic issue of Semiotica gives an insight into the history of zoosemiotics and into contemporary developments of the field. Temporal distance allows for a fresh perspective on Thomas A. Sebeok's zoosemiotic writings, periodization of his works and their relations to other studies of animal semiotics. In the present time, zoosemiotics can provide a necessary space of dialogue between biosemiotics and general semiotics. It is claimed that, for contemporary zoosemiotics, a pluralistic approach is the most suitable for the purposes of historical description, object-level studies, and paradigmatic theorizations. It is also relevant to see zoosemiotics as contextualized within recent developments of environmental humanities. In this paper, the classical era of zoosemiotics is contrasted with the more recent post-linguistic zoosemiotics, with special attention paid to the synthesis between zoosemiotics and cultural and literary criticism, to zoomusicology, and to the inclusion of semiotic arguments in animal ethics. Several practical methods and applications of zoo-semiotics are discussed.
About the author
Timo Maran (b. 1975) is a senior research fellow at the University of Tartu 〈timo.maran@ut.ee〉. His research interests include theory and semiotics of biological mimicry, theory and history of zoosemiotics, ecosemiotics, and Estonian nature writing. His publications include “Semiotic interpretations of biological mimicry” (2007); and “Towards an integrated methodology of ecosemiotics: The concept of nature-text” (2008).
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Dimensions of zoosemiotics
- Frontmatter
- Dimensions of zoosemiotics: Introduction
- The semiome: From genetic to semiotic scaffolding
- Codes and coding: Sebeok's zoosemiotics and the dismantling of the fixed-code fallacy
- Zoosemiotics is the study of animal forms of knowing
- Zoo-aesthetics: A natural step after Darwin
- Curs, crabs, and cranky cows: Ethological and linguistic aspects of animal-based insults
- On zoosemiotics and bridging the value gap
- Umwelt or Umwelten? How should shared representation be understood given such diversity?
- Umwelt trajectories
- Training guide dogs of the blind with the “phantom man” method: Historic background and semiotic footing
- From sign to action: Studies in chimpanzee pictorial competence
- Patterns and dynamics of (bird) soundscapes: A biosemiotic interpretation
- Observation ↔ Text/e ↔ Culture
- Introduction
- Culture, power, dictionaries: What lexicography reveals about cultural objects
- La culture comme objet
- La mémoire et l'événement: Les autobiographies intellectuelles au Brésil
- Human voice: Its meaning and textuality outside the verbal and the musical
- Des parcours interprétatifs à la réception des textes médiévaux
- Semiotic of pretext, semiotics of pre-text
- From text to culture through corpus: Interactivity as an argumentative keyword of contemporary cyberculture
- Le texte comme fragment culturel: Trois scénarios d'observation
Articles in the same Issue
- Dimensions of zoosemiotics
- Frontmatter
- Dimensions of zoosemiotics: Introduction
- The semiome: From genetic to semiotic scaffolding
- Codes and coding: Sebeok's zoosemiotics and the dismantling of the fixed-code fallacy
- Zoosemiotics is the study of animal forms of knowing
- Zoo-aesthetics: A natural step after Darwin
- Curs, crabs, and cranky cows: Ethological and linguistic aspects of animal-based insults
- On zoosemiotics and bridging the value gap
- Umwelt or Umwelten? How should shared representation be understood given such diversity?
- Umwelt trajectories
- Training guide dogs of the blind with the “phantom man” method: Historic background and semiotic footing
- From sign to action: Studies in chimpanzee pictorial competence
- Patterns and dynamics of (bird) soundscapes: A biosemiotic interpretation
- Observation ↔ Text/e ↔ Culture
- Introduction
- Culture, power, dictionaries: What lexicography reveals about cultural objects
- La culture comme objet
- La mémoire et l'événement: Les autobiographies intellectuelles au Brésil
- Human voice: Its meaning and textuality outside the verbal and the musical
- Des parcours interprétatifs à la réception des textes médiévaux
- Semiotic of pretext, semiotics of pre-text
- From text to culture through corpus: Interactivity as an argumentative keyword of contemporary cyberculture
- Le texte comme fragment culturel: Trois scénarios d'observation
