Showing papers on "Semiosphere published in 2016"

Lotman and play: For a theory of playfulness based on semiotics of culture

Abstract: The aim of the article is to introduce an approach to play based on semiotics of culture and, in particular, grounded in the works and ideas of Juri Lotman. On the one hand, it provides an overview of Lotman’s works dedicated to play and games, starting from his article on art among other modelling systems, in which the phenomenon of play is treated deeply, and mentioning Lotman’s articles dedicated to various forms of play forms, such as involving dolls and playing cards. On the other hand, it applies a few Lotmanian theories and ideas to playfulness in order to shed some light on this highly debated, as well as intriguing, anthropic activity. Thus, the paper approaches some of the core questions for a play theory, such as the definition of play, the cultural role of toys and playthings, the importance of unpredictability, the position held by playfulness in the semiosphere and, finally, the differences and commonalities between play and art. Lotman’s theories and works, often integrated by other existing semiotic or ludologic perspectives offer an extremely insightful and fresh take on play and illustrate the great heuristic potential of semiotics of culture.

Dialogue in Peirce, Lotman, and Bakhtin: A comparative study

Abstract: Th e notion of dialogue is foundational for both Juri Lotman and Mikhail Bakhtin. It is also central in Charles S. Peirce’s semeiotics and logic. While there are several scholarly comparisons of Bakhtin’s and Lotman’s dialogisms, these have yet to be compared with Peirce’s semeiotic dialogues. Th is article takes tentative steps toward a comparative study of dialogue in Peirce, Lotman, and Bakhtin. Peirce’s understanding of dialogue is explicated, and compared with both Lotman’s as well as Bakhtin’s conceptions. Lotman saw dialogue as the basic meaning-making mechanism in the semio sphere. Th e benefi ts and shortcomings of reconceptualizing the semiosphere on the basis of Peircean and Bakhtinian dialogues are weighed. Th e aim is to explore methodological alternatives in semiotics, not to challenge Lotman’s initial model. It is claimed that the semiosphere qua model operating with Bakhtinian dialogues is narrower in scope than Lotman’s original conception, while the semiosphere qua model operating with Peircean dialogues appears to be broader in scope. It is concluded that the choice between alternative dialogical foundations must be informed by attentiveness to their diff erences, and should be motivated by the researcher’s goals and theoretical commitments.

Homo polyglottus: Semiosphere as a model of human cognition

Abstract: The semiosphere is arguably the most influential concept developed by Juri Lotman, which has been reinterpreted in a variety of ways. This paper returns to Lotman’s original “anthropocentric” understanding of semiosphere as a collective intellect/consciousness and revisits the main arguments of Lotman’s discussion of human vs. nonhuman semiosis in order to position it in the modern context of cognitive semiotics and the question of human uniqueness in particular. In contrast to the majority of works that focus on symbolic consciousness and multimodal communication as specifically human traits, Lotman accentuates polyglottism and dialogicity as the unique features of human culture. Formulated in this manner, the concept of semiosphere is used as a conceptual framework for the study of human cognition as well as human cognitive evolution.

The Street Artist as Translator

Abstract: In the article, the position of the street artist as translator is analyzed on the basis of the concept of the semiosphere developed by the Russian-Estonian semiotician Yuri Lotman. The methodological framework of the Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics is applied to the phenomenon of contemporary public art. The process of translation between texts in urban space is illustrated by examples of works of art that use modifications of the same object—a telephone booth.

Medical Practice in/with the Semiosphere

Abstract: After a brief contemplation on the biosemiotic approach to medicine, it seems that we live “in” a world of signs. And medicine, like one of the guides of Alice in Wonderland, helps us to interpret the signs of body and environment, not just assisting in finding a way “out” of deviational pathways of pains and illness. However, it should be noted that we as open, multilevel, self-organizing, and self-narrating sign systems live “in/with” the semiosphere. The semiosphere is the totality of semiotic processes occurring in our planet (Hoffmeyer 1998, p. 470). From this viewpoint, illnesses and conflicts do not only appear inside our life scenario as intruders and threatening characters, but can also be developmental forces and essential signs for evolution. Medicine in this perspective is an intentional, intersubjective system, which extends our natural adaptation to the levels of personal and social consciousness. Medical discourse is a sign system which differentiates signs to healthy, unhealthy, pathogenic, and salutogenic.

The Racialized Economy of Desire in The Fair Maid of the West

Abstract: Thomas Heywood’s The Fair Maid of the West, Parts 1 and 2 is a key work in which commerce, national and racial identity, gender, capitalism and early globalization crisscross in order to construct a single discourse of the nation in early modern England. In this article the confluence of the above factors has been examined from the perspective of Deleuze and Guattari’s theorization of economy of desire and the disciplining thereof through historically given social formations. I also resort to lotman’s concept of semiosphere. This text sets out to prove how, through a subtext of commercial superiority of the English above the Moroccans, a discourse of economies of desire including racial and national elements is obliquely enacted in the two plays. This discourse manifests the superiority of the typically capitalist disciplining of desire over an older and inferior discipline of desire which may well be termed the imperial mode, represented mainly by the Moors and Mullisheg, the Moorish King of Fez.

Two versions of ecosophy: Arne Næss, Félix Guattari, and their connection with semiotics

Abstract: This paper adopts a comparative approach in order to appreciate the distinct contributions of Arne Naess and Felix Guattari to ecosophy and their respective connections to semiotics. The foundational holistic worldview and dynamics ecosophy propounds show numerous connections with semiotics. The primary objective of this paper is to question the nature and value of these connections. Historically, the development of ecosophy was always faced with modelling and communication issues, which constitute an obvious common ground shared with semiotics. As a means to an end, ecosophy settled to develop a thoughtful axiology based on ecological wisdom and promote it bottom-up. Political activism notwithstanding, semiotics also deals with value: sign value and meaning. In this respect, semiotics is inherently axiological, but most often this dimension is effaced or muted. Emphasizing the axiological dimension of semiotics helps understand how dominant significations, habits, and values are established, and enlighten the crucial part it could play in the humanities and beyond by partly coalescing with ecosophy. As the complementarity of both traditions is appreciated, the plausibility of a merger is assessed. Arguably, ecosophy is axiomatized semiotics. From this novel perspective, one can see human communities as dynamically partaking in signifying processes, in a space that is at once an ecosphere, a semiosphere, and a vast political territory. As there is growing evidence that environmental degradation lessens our quality of life and the sustainability of our communities, ecosophy might help reform values and practices.

Whose Byzantinism – ours or theirs? On the issue of Byzantinism from a cultural semiotic perspective

Abstract: From a cultural semiotic perspective, inspired by Yuri Lotman and Itamar Even-Zohar, it is demonstrated in this article that the notion of Byzantinism is used in both the Western semiosphere, relating to Paris as its cultural centre, and the Byzantine semiosphere, relating to Constantinople. Since Byzantinism functions in different ways and carries different meanings and values in these semiospheres, it has often been used to separate the semiospheres from each other. In this sense, the notion of Byzantinism marks the cultural border between ‘us’ and ‘them’, from the point of view of the Western as well as the Byzantine semiosphere. An all too simple and superficial understanding of this phenomenon has been challenged however by various writers and intellectuals, who represent different languages and cultures, and who operate within either the Western or the Byzantine semiosphere, yet who all say ‘our Byzantinism’.Byzantinism might strengthen the sense of belonging to a Byzantine community, or articulate the desire to do so, as in the case of Konstantin Leontiev’s Russian article on ‘Byzantinism and Slavdom’. In the French avant-garde context of La Revue blanche, the notion of Byzantinism, might be brought from the periphery of the Western cultural system into fin-de-siecle Paris, right into the heart of the Western semiosphere. Cavafy’s poem ‘Στην Eκκλησία’ (In the Church) represents a case of interference between the Western and the Byzantine cultural systems. Rather than adherence to any culturally central norms it articulates a state of cultural change.Byzantinism conceived as ‘ours’ is not a culturally centralised notion carrying positive value only within the Byzantine semiosphere. This complex and enigmatic notion can be characterised by its tendency to cause interference and transfers in the peripheries of both the Western and Byzantine cultural systems. The notion of Byzantinism has proved to be able to both separate and unite East and West, i.e. the Byzantine and the Western semiospheres. From within either, Byzantinism can be shown to be not only theirs, but also ours.

Understanding the Return of the Wolf - Ecosemiotics and Landscape Hermeneutics

Abstract: Animals in the Anthropocene: Human–animal relations in a changing semiosphere, 17 september 2015

The Aesthetics of Complicite

Abstract: This chapter presents an analysis of plays such as The Chairs, The Magic Flute and Mnemonic, along with others It provides a more detailed explanation of the grounds for approaching the aesthetics of Complicite through Yuri Lotman’s concept of the semiosphere The analogies include the delimitation of communicative space, the dynamic relations between the centre and the periphery, the notion of the boundary and the autonomy of constitutive elements Four levels of theatre communication that operate in Complicite are distinguished The intriguing role of the multiplication of variants is scrutinised There is a discussion of the numerous meanings ascribed to the simple prop of a chair in various performances, as well as of the visual and sonic tissues of performances

Values, edusemiotics, and intercultural dialogue: From Russia with questions

Abstract: Abstract Even after the “perestroika” and “glasnostj” in Russia, and increased communication in the interconnected world, the state of contemporary education there remains relatively unknown to Western scholars. This paper aims to ameliorate this problem by examining some of the signs comprising the system of education in Russia against the problematic of the historically American pursuit of happiness. While formal education in the West explicitly focuses on academic disciplines, in Russia there always existed an element of “bringing up” as a sign of the value-dimension infusing, sometimes implicitly, both formal and informal (or cultural) education. The paper intends to demonstrate the ubiquity and the importance of the edusemiotic conception of values-education irreducible to inculcation but oriented to self-formation embedded in human experience. An edusemiotic perspective problematizes the aims of education and emphasizes learning from experience, dialogue, coordination, meaning, and values. Values “reside” in lived experience, and edusemiotics surpasses education reduced to teaching of brute facts. The paper also critically examines education as socialization via social media and affirms spiritual education in contrast to persistent secularization.