Showing papers on "Semiosphere published in 2012"

Between homeworld and alienworld : a primer of cultural semiotics

Abstract: Since it was first invented by the Tartu school, semiotics of culture has known very little theoretical development, with the exception of some articles by Roland Posner and by the present author. In this paper, we will have a look at the differences between these three approaches, and we will consider the theoretical reasons for going beyond not only the original Tartu school proposal, but also Posner's revision. Moreover, we will relate cultural semiotics to Husserlean phenomenology and to classical and contemporary theories of empathy. Semiotics of culture was invented by Jurij Lotman, Boris Uspenskij and a number of other scholars in the so-called Moscow-Tartu school in the sixties of the last century (Lotman et al. 1975). In the original version, it concerned the opposition of Culture to Non-culture, conceived as a difference between order and disorder, and many other binary terms. This early version, as well as the later, much vaguer variety, in which the semiosphere is substituted for culture (Lotman 1990), have often been applied, but hardly ever been subjected to any further theoretical development. One notable exception to this is a seminal article by Roland Posner (1989). I have myself also written a number of articles in which I try to extend the original framework of cultural semiotics, by means of clearer, qualitative definitions and more differentiations (Sonesson 1992; 1994; 1998; 1999; 2000; 2001; 2002a, b; 2003; 2004; 2007a, b). The original inspiration for my work was didactic: I wanted to present the Tartu school model in a more readily accessible way (Sonesson 1992). Soon I realised that, by way of making it more distinct, I also changed the theory. It was only at that point that I became aware of Posner’s work, with which my own proposal has affinities, at the same time as presenting notable differences. Since then I have tried to extend the framework by relating it to Peirce’s early triad in terms of personal pronouns, the hermeneutics of empathy, and much more. Meanwhile, at least two persons have applied my model, and thus thrown new light on it, one in the study of a historical material, the voyages of Mme de Stael (Cabak Redei 2007), and another in relation to the contemporary situation, viz

Challenging identity: Lotman’s “translation of the untranslatable” and Derrida’s différance

Abstract: The concept of "cultural identity" has gradually replaced such discredited concepts as "race", "ethnicity", even "nationality" in the conservative political discourse of recent decades which conceives, represents and performs culture as a closed system with clear-cut boundaries which must be defended from contamination. The article employs the theories of Derrida and Lotman as useful tools for deconstructing this understanding of cultural identity, which has recently become an ideological justification for socio-political conflicts. In fact, their theories spring from a thorough critique of the kind of internalizing self-enclosure which allowed Saussure to delimit and describe langue as the object of linguistics. The article identifies and compares the elements of this critique, focusing on Derrida's and Lotman's concepts of "mirror structure", "binarism", "numerousness", "textuality" and "semiosphere". An understanding of mediation emerges which is not reducible to any kind of definitive acquisition, thereby frustrating the pretences of identity, constantly dislocating and deferring any attempt at semiotic self-enclosure. My comparison suggests that Lotman's "translation of the untranslatable" (or "dialogue") and Derrida's differance can be considered analogous descriptions of this problematic kind of mediation. The (de)constructive nature of culture, as described by Lotman and Derrida, challenges any attempt to view cultural formations as sources of rigid and irreducible identities or differences.

Semiotica Tartuensis: Jakob von Uexkiill and Juri Lotman

Abstract: Abstract The essay provides a brief analysis of correspondence between two scholars whose heritage forms the basis of contemporary Tartu semiotics-Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944) and Juri Lotman (1922-1993). A comparison between Uexküll's and Lotman's work demonstrates a series of features in which their approaches are in concord. We find some aspects of local culture as supportive of their way of thinking. We also claim that the theoretical integration of Jakob Uexküll's and Juri Lotman's approaches is at the heart of the contemporary semiotics, which has a task to develop a theoretical and methodological apparatus that would delimit and specify the scope of general semiotics and that could be used as a basis for all branches of semiotics.

Semiotics of Communication: From Semiosis of Nature to Culture

Abstract: Communication Studies currently undergoes a crisis of paradigms that requires an ontological review that must begin with a debate about the conditions of possibility of every communicational phenomena. In this article we argue that semiosis offers a conceptual framework that allows for the study of communication as qualitative action. Semiosis, or the action of the sign, is here defined as a fundamental process based on perception that models the world of species, creating cognition and culture. At the core of semiosis are dynamic structures that the authors have defined as ‘ontological diagrams’. The first purpose of Semiotics of Communication is to understand how these modeling systems evolve ontologically and phylogenically, producing, in the case of human culture, means of communication ever more varied and technologically advanced.

The committee on public information : a transmedia war propaganda campaign

Abstract: This thesis develops an understanding of how propaganda entered the realm of journalism and popular culture in the United States during World War I through an examination of materials created by the Committee on Public Information (CPI). The CPI was a US governmental propaganda organisation created during World War I to persuade the nation to mobilise for war. Three of its divisions were chosen for this study: the Division of News (DoN), the Division of Four Minute Men (FMM) and the Division of Pictorial Publicity (DPP). Chapter 1 provides a general context for the thesis, outlines the research questions and details previous research on the CPI. Chapter 2 outlines the methods of analysis for interpreting the case study chapters and provides contextual information. The case studies are presented in Chapters 3, 4 and 5. These chapters are structured in the order of context, medium and content, and contain historical contextual information about each particular division, medialogical aspects of its propagated form and thematic groupings created from close reading of CPI materials. A semiotic analysis in the Peircian tradition is also performed on visual forms of propaganda in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 discusses how the expectations of persuasion, truth and amusement relate to each other when mediated in culture, using Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere. This further develops an understanding of propaganda as a cultural system in relation to other cultural systems – in this case, journalism and popular culture. Chapter 7 provides conclusions about the study, outlines relative strengths and weaknesses regarding the selection and deployment of methods, makes recommendations for future research, and summarises the key contributions of the thesis.

On the Semiosphere, Revisited

Abstract: The semiosphere is frequently described as a topos of complexification, namely discontinuous or heterogeneous, recursive or self-reflexive, stochastic, radically subjective, and capable of simultaneous multiple perspectives. While the topos of complexification describes the gross morphology of a model, it is not a model adequate for explaining phenomena or making predictions. The ecological theory of dual hierarchies is proposed as a framework for developing models of the semiosphere that are appropriately limited in scope and scale. In particular the semiosphere is modeled as a dual hierarchy of semiotic spaces, the dual hierarchies corresponding to the semiosis that is occurring within the dual hierarchies of ecological organization. This framework immediately solves several theoretical problems, such as clearing up conceptual inconsistencies in Lotman's concept of semiosphere.

Semiótica de lo bárbaro: para una tipología de las inculturas 1 the semiotics of barbarity: toward a typology of incultivation

Abstract: Since the beginning of Lotman’s project of a semiotics of culture(s), the concept of non-culture, or that of lack of culture, have played a fundamental role. Indeed, in the frame of Lotman’s theory, the presence of a dimension of non-culture, or lack of culture, is unavoidable for the definition of culture itself. Post-Lotmanian semiotics deepened the study of the internal dynamics of the cultural semiosphere, but very rarely tackled the question of non-culture, or that of lack of culture. The article aims at investigating the frontiers between semiosphere and semio-chaos, or between semio-sphere and semio-nothing, meditating, in particular, on the following questions: a) How can «barbarity» be characterized in the frame of a semiotics of culture?; b) Is barbarity simply a figure of lack of culture, or is it something more? And c) Can a typology of non-cultures be elaborated, in the same way as Lotman and Uspenskij elaborated a typology of cultures? What would the role of «barbarity» be in such a typology? Palabras clave: Incultura. Barbaro. Cultura. Semiotica. Lotman. Greimas.

The mythopoetical model and logic of the concrete in Quechua culture: Cultural and transcultural translation problems

Abstract: This article deals mainly with problems of cultural/transcultural translation between the Quechua and Spanish cultures, analysing these on the basis of some ideas by Juri Lotman and Peeter Torop. The process of translation implies considering the Quechua semiosphere’s internal borders as well as the external borders related to the cultures that existed at the time of Tahuantin Suyo, and all changes that have come from the Spanish conquest of Latin America. In the case of the Quechua culture, the problems are numerous and conflicting in several dimensions. First of all, Quechua is an agglutinating language that creates problems for translation into a flexional language such as Spanish. Secondly, and more importantly, there exists a mythopoetical model of the world that has been built in this culture, which does not use concepts of rational logic, but poetic images integrated into mythical thinking: it represents a different cognitive pattern. Thirdly, the presence of the logic of the concrete in Quechua culture, articulated with the mythopoetical model, makes translation from Western abstract formal logic difficult. Reflections on these issues provide new analytical possibilities.

Biosemiotics in a Gallery

Abstract: In this article we review the biosemiotic art exhibition «Signs of life» (Livstegn), that was organized by the Danish installation artist Morten Skriver and the biosemiotician Jesper Hoffmeyer in 2011 at the Esbjerg Art Museum (Denmark). The exhibition presented five central (bio)semiotic concepts using artistic tools: the semiosphere, the sign, semiotic scaffolding, semiotic freedom, and surfaces.

Postmodern Doom and Transmetropolitan Redemption

Abstract: The analysis of the semiotic relationship between the city and the science fiction mode in Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s Transmetropolitan allows first of all for a critical introduction that challenges certain canonical certainties regarding the science fiction mode as well as the medium of comic books, and lead us to refine our terminology to better distinguish literary genres from narrative modes. Transmetropolitan can be considered as paradigmatic when it comes to the treatment of the city in the science fiction mode for it offers a variety of interpretive layers, which, when studied from the particular to the general—from micro to macrostructures—enable us to establish a vast array of connotative levels that work complementarily in order to generate a highly coherent narrative semiosphere. Ultimately, the study of the narrative function of the city as theme and background in the Transmetropolitan saga reveals its political and ethical intentionality, which transcends the ideological limitations of post-structuralist cultural constructionism and puts forth a hopeful, albeit

Leggi della contaminazione e della mescolanza, Don Delillo e Jean-Luc Godard: una sfida illuminante

Abstract: AimThe present paper aims at highlithing the new dynamics of comparison and exchange between literature and arts. It assumes the idea of a literature centred on the relations between text and context, bent on exhalting its "social" disposition. Then it deals with the subject of the work's originality in terms of identitary pact constantly renegotiated with works belonging to other semiologic themes. In this perspective, this article briefly investigates the complex relation between Don De Lillo's and Jean-Luc Godard's works.MethodologyThe analytic approach moves between comparative literature and cultural criticism, in a very well-known field in the area of traditional literary studies and a very important sector in the structuration of contemporary imaginary: the relation between literature and cinema. The methodology adopted employs the comparative dynamics typical of text semiotcs, to underline exchange categories, among different languages and codes, which prove to be flowing, open and constantly changing.ResultsThe article highlights and explores new possibilities in the relation between cinema and literature, investigating them on the basis of the present observations on the notion of text; it also explains the urgency of a semantic reassessment of the concept of "work's originality" in the contemporary semiosphere.

‘Rabid Ruthenian’: L’homme sauvage of the Late Eighteenth-Century Polish-Lithuanian Semiosphere

Abstract: Matters have reached a point / Where we’re deprived of all hope for hope. / Peasantry incited by Muscovite spirits / has started to rebel and riot overtly: / They’re sharpening knives and loading guns, / Reforging and gearing up spears; / They’re claiming arrogantly in our vicinity / That they’ll sift out tares from wheat.1 / Confessions of detainees prove / That the peasantry has determined a rendezvous / To slaughter us on the very day of Easter. / Oh, for God’s sake, why is there no rescue for us / From you? You keep promising it, / but in effect bring none.2

On the semiotic description of autogenesis in culture

Abstract: The article is devoted to the notion of autogenesis and mechanism of unpredictable emergence in culture. The notion is treated in the context of the semiotics of culture and the theory of semiosphere. The examples are drawn mainly from Russian avant-garde culture.