Showing papers on "Sign (semiotics) published in 2006"

Difference, diversity, differentiation

Abstract: The first part of text adresses the various notions of "difference" that have emerged in the recent controversy about the category "black" as a common sign for the experience of African-Caribbean and South Asian groups in post-war Britain. The aim is to signal how "black" has operated as a contingent sign under different political circumstances. The second section is concerned with the ways in which issues of "difference" were framed within feminist theory and practice during the 1970s and 1980s. The primary focus is on the British debate. The author concludes with a brief examination of some conceptual categories used in the theorisation of "difference", and suggests a new analytical framework.

Multilingualism in Tokyo: A Look into the Linguistic Landscape

Abstract: This paper is about multilingual signs in Tokyo. It is based on empirical research conducted in 2003. Special attention is given to the distinction between official and nonofficial multilingual signs. It will be demonstrated that the two types of signs exhibit some essentially different characteristics with regard to the languages contained and their arrangement on a sign. These differences will be interpreted using the notions of power and solidarity. While official signs are designed mainly to express and reinforce existing power relations, nonofficial signs make use of foreign languages in order to communicate solidarity with things non-Japanese. Both types of signs have their share in changing Tokyo's linguistic landscape.

A Semiotic Perspective of Mathematical Activity: The Case of Number

Abstract: A semiotic perspective on mathematical activity provides a way of conceptualizing the teaching and learning of mathematics that transcends and encompasses both psychological perspectives focussing exclusively on mental structures and functions, and performance-focussed perspectives concerned only with student' behaviours. Instead it considers the personal appropriation of signs and the underlying meaning structures embodying relationships between signs. It is concerned with patterns of sign use and sign production, including individual creativity in sign use, and the underlying social rules and contexts of sign use. It is based on the concept of a semiotic system, comprising signs, rules of sign production, and an underpinning meaning structure. This theorisation is applied to the learning of number, from counting to calculation. Historical, foundational and developmental (i.e., learning) perspectives are explored and contrasted. It is argued that in each of these domains, the dominant significant activity concerns the production of sequences of signs.

Semiotic Representations: Building Complex Literacy Practices through the Arts.

Abstract: Learning to write well often proves to be one of the most difficult areas in the English language arts for young children. However, in these fourth- and fifth-grade language arts classrooms, children are offered opportunities to explore, think through, and express meaning across and within sign systems—in particular, using art, drama, and language. Children engage in arts- and language-based lessons and develop semiotic texts that are richly complex and imaginatively descriptive. Within the teacher's semiotic approach to literacy instruction, children develop habits in strategy use and knowledge of and practice in sign systems, both of which help them develop strong literacy practices. Once such experiences become habits of mind, students develop new insights into their own writing, creating, and talking about their texts, as well as the composing process.

Emergence and Development of Signed Languages: From a Semiogenetic Point of View

Abstract: This article first introduces some theoretical considerations concerning the emergence and evolution of sign languages from the semiogenetic perspective. It then presents results from a linguistic study of the phenomenon of lexical stabilization in three emerging sign languages used by Brazilian deaf adults who live in a hearing environment without contact with a deaf community.

Material civilization: things and society.

Abstract: This paper argues that although classical sociology has largely overlooked the importance of social relations with the material world in shaping the form of society, Braudel's concept of 'material civilization' is a useful way to begin to understand the sociological significance of this relationship. The limitations of Braudel's historical and general concept can be partially overcome with Elias's analysis of the connection between 'technization' and 'civilization' that allows for both a civilizing and a de-civilizing impact of emergent forms of material relation that both lengthen and shorten the chains of interdependence between the members of a society. It is suggested that the concept of the 'morality of things' employed by a number of commentators is useful in summarizing the civilizing effects of material objects and addressing their sociological significance. From the sociology of consumption the idea of materiality as a sign of social relationships can be drawn, and from the sociology of technology the idea of socio-technical systems and actor-networks can contribute to the understanding of material civilization. It is argued that the concept of 'material capital' can usefully summarize the variable social value of objects but to understand the complexity of material civilization as it unfolds in everyday life, an analysis of 'material interaction' is needed. Finally the paper suggests some initial themes and issues apparent in contemporary society that the sociological study of material civilization might address; the increased volume, functional complexity and material specificity of objects and the increased social complexity, autonomy and substitutability that is entailed. A theory of 'material civilization' is the first step in establishing a sociology of objects.

Living And Learning As Semiotic Engagement: A New Theory of Education

Abstract: Preface Introduction Part 1: Living as Semiotic Engagement 1. Sign(al)s 2. Humans, Animals and Other Life Forms 3. The Individual and Society 4. Living Well and Being Good 5. Religion, Philosophy and the Paranormal 6. Language and Reason Part 2: Learning as Semiotic Engagement 7. What is Learning? 8. Consciousness 9. Becoming Human? Infancy as Semiotic Engagement 10. Teaching for Having Learnt: The Importance of Successful Action 11. The Dynamics and Constraints of the Classroom 12. Learning and Time Part 3: Managing as Semiotic Engagement 13. Public / Private 14. Institutions as Inscriptions 15. Responsible People 16. Responsive Systems 17. Meanings and Markets Part 4: Understanding as Semiotic Engagement 18. Ways of Knowing Ways of Knowing 19. Education and Related Disciplines as Physical, Social and Cultural Practice 20. Classrooms as Texts 21. Researching Lived Experience: Some Theoretical Frameworks 22. Researching 'Effective Schools' Part 5: In Conclusion 23. The Science of Becoming 24. How to Make Your Education Work for You 25. Learning to Love with Paradox in Competitive Communities Bibliography Index.

Automatic Translation of Arabic Text to Arabic Sign Language

Abstract: Sign language is the basic means of communication among hearing-impaired people. Systems that could act as interpreters between vocal and hearing-impaired people would facilitate the life of deaf and integrate them in the society. Such systems should perform bidirectional translation of sign language and spoken language. A lot of efforts invested on translating sign languages to spoken languages. However, it is just as important to translate a spoken language to a sign language. This would provide a two-way communication between hearing-impaired and vocal people. A reasonably priced portable computer would be sufficient to perform the two-way translation. This paper proposes a system that translates Arabic text to Arabic sign language. A word that corresponds to a sign from the Arabic sign language dictionary calls a pre-recorded video clip showing the sign played on the monitor of the portable computer. If the word does not have a corresponding sign in the dictionary, it is finger spelled as done in real life by deaf for words that do not have specific signs; like proper names. They system is expandable as all what is needed is to add new signs to the database. The developed system can also be used to teach deaf or their relatives the Arabic Sign Language. It is accessible at the site http://naas.itc.kfupm.edu.sa:8080/SignsApp/

The meaning of meaning in biology and cognitive science. A semiotic reconstruction.

Abstract: . The essay aims at integration of different concepts of meaning developed in semiotics, biology, and cognitive science, in a way that permits the formulation of issues involving evolution and development. The concept of sign in semiotics, just like the notion of representation in cognitive science, have either been used so broadly as to become almost meaningless, or they have been outright rejected, because of some implicit idea of what they imply. My earlier work on the notions of iconicity and pictoriality has forced me to spell out the taken-for-granted meaning of the sign concept, both in the Saussurean and the Peircean tradition. My recent work with the evolution and development of semiotic resources such as language, gesture, and pictures has proved the need of having recourse to a more specified concept of sign. To define the sign, I take as point of departure the notion of semiotic function, as characterised by Piaget, and the notion of appresentation, as defined by Husserl. In the first part of this essay, I consider some similarities and differences between cognitive science and semiotics, in particular as far as the parallel concepts of representation and sign are concerned. The second part is concerned with what is probably the most important attempt to integrate cognitive science and semiotics that has been presented so far, The Symbolic Species, by Terrence Deacon. I demonstrate that Deacon’s use of notions such as iconicity, indexicality, and symbolicity, are not only difficult to reconcile with natural interpretations of the Peircean canon, but also not very useful for understanding the evolution and development of semiotic resources. This is why I choose to separate the sign concept from the notions of iconicity, indexicality, and symbolicity, which only in combination with the sign give rise to icons, indices, and symbols, but which, beyond that, have other, more elemental, uses in the world of perception. In the third part, I discuss some ideas about meaning in biosemiotics, which I show not to involve signs in the sense characterised earlier in the essay. Instead, they have much to do with meaning in the general sense of selection and organisation, which is a more elementary sense of meaning. Although I admit that there is a possible interpretation of Peirce, which could be taken to correspond to Uexkull’s idea of functional circle, and to meaning as function described, notably, by Emmeche and Hoffmeyer, I claim that this is a different sense of meaning than the one embodied in the sign concept. Finally, I suggest that more thresholds of meaning than proposed, for instance by Kull, are necessary to accommodate the differences between meaning (in the broad sense) and sign (as specified in the Piaget-Husserl tradition).

Mathematics and Mathematics Education as Triadic Communication? A Semiotic Framework Exemplified.

Abstract: The article investigates in the first part critically dyadic and essentialist understanding of signs and utterances in mathematics and mathematics education as opposed to a triadic view. However even Peircean semiotics, giving priority to triadic, dynamic sign may face challenges, such as explaining the sign as a pragmatic act and how signs are related to context. To meet these and other hurdles an explicit communicational, pragmatic and triadic view, found in parts of the works of Buhler, Bakhtin, Habermas, and Halliday, is developed. Two basic principles are combined and established in a theoretical framework. Firstly, whenever uttering, there will exist in any semiotic sign system, dynamic reciprocity and simultaneity between expressing through form, referring to content, and addressing as an act. Secondly, meaning will be created by the dynamics between given and new in utterances and between utterances and contextual genres. The latter principle explains how meaning merge in communication dynamically and create the basis for a discursive understanding of semiosis and hence even learning at large. The second part exemplifies each of the three main aspects and the dynamics of utterance and genre and given and new by excerpts from a textbook in mathematics education. The concept ‘positioning’, in use for operationalisation, is explained in relation to main principles of the framework. The article ends focusing crucial implications for validation when moving from a dyadic to a triadic understanding of mathematics and mathematics education.

Communication and the Semiotics of Space

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to explicate some common situations relevant to communication and the semiotics of space. Semiotics provides a systemic way to analyse and understand the characteristics of signs expressing meaning. In everyday life space is rarely considered for its independent qualities, but is more generally taken as a category of conceptions that act as a background, or a context for the meaning of other objects. The study of space as a semiotic phenomenon suggests that the meaning of space, as a sign, is generally understood in relation to other concerns. Communication draws attention to the content of messages while space contributes to the meanings of those messages without being obvious about its role in constructing meaning.

A study of technical signs in science: implications for lexical database development.

Abstract: Both classroom instruction and lexical database development stand to benefit from applied research on sign language, which takes into consideration American Sign Language rules, pedagogical issues, and teacher characteristics. In this study of technical science signs, teachers' experience with signing and, especially, knowledge of content, were found to be essential for the identification of signs appropriate for instruction. The results of this study also indicate a need for a systematic approach to examine both sign selection and its impact on learning by deaf students. Recommendations are made for the development of lexical databases and areas of research for optimizing the use of sign language in instruction.

Sign(al)s: living and learning as semiotic engagement

Abstract: Cartesian mind‐body dualism, while often explicitly denied, has left a legacy of conceptions that remain highly influential in education. I argue that trends in both analytic and continental philosophy of language point towards a post‐Cartesian settlement in which the distinction between ‘signs’ and ‘signals’ is collapsed, and which thus construes all living (and learning) as semiotic engagement. I begin to explore the implications of such a view for learning theory, teaching and the curriculum, educational and social research, and broader social policy.

Life and semiosis : The real nature of information and meaning

Abstract: Genes and proteins are molecular artifacts because they are manufactured by molecular machines that physically stick their subunits together in the order provided by external templates. This implies that all biological objects are artifacts, and therefore that 'life is artifact-making.' Natural objects can be completely accounted for by physical quantities, whereas artifacts require additional entities like sequences and codes, or equivalent entities like information and meaning. Here it is shown that organic information and organic meaning are brought into existence by the molecular processes of copying and coding, which implies that, far from being metaphors, they are as real as the processes that produce them. It is also shown that they can be defined by operative procedures that make them as objective and reproducible as physical quantities. The result is that organic information and organic meaning are a new type of fundamental natural entities that here are referred to as nominable entities because they can be specified only by naming their components in their natural order. Any organic code is a correspondence between the objects of two independent worlds (genes and proteins) which is established by molecules that belong to a third world (RNAs). The elementary act of organic coding is therefore a relationship between three objects that can be referred to as 'sign, meaning, and adaptor,' whereas the elementary act of cultural semiosis consists, according to Peirce, of 'sign, meaning, and interpretant.' It is underlined that 'organic semiosis' is implemented by codemakers and consists of objective organic reactions, whereas mental semiosis' is performed by interpreters and is a subjective process. This means that organic semiosis does not require the existence of a mind at the molecular level, and the organic codes are natural processes that are based on objective, reproducible, and fundamental natural entities.

Sémiotique de l'interjection

Abstract: Georges Kleiber: Semiotics of Interjection The aim of this paper is to draw some new specifie aspects of the interjections semiotic functions. This analysis will allow us to comprehend in a better way the type of category we are dealing with. Within this perspective, our investigation is based on the semiotic comparison between interjections and onomatopoeia. We suggest that two levels of formation exist and that the distinction operated between them will reveal the semiotic specificity of this enigmatic sign -«ce canard boiteux... des signes» -that interjection is.

The Neo-Primitivist Turn: Critical Reflections on Alterity, Culture, and Modernity

Abstract: In recent years the concept of 'the primitive' has been the subject of strong criticism; it has been examined, unpacked, and shown to signify little more than a construction or projection necessary for establishing the modernity of the West The term 'primitive' continues, however, to appear in contemporary critical and cultural discourse, begging the question: Why does primitivism keep reappearing even after it has been uncovered as a modern myth? In The Neo-primitivist Turn, Victor Li argues that this contentious term was never completely banished and that it has in fact reappeared under new theoretical guises An idealized conception of 'the primitive,' he contends, has come to function as the ultimate sign of alterity Li focuses on the works of theorists like Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Marianna Torgovnick, Marshall Sahlins, and Jurgen Habermas in order to demonstrate that primitivism continues to be a powerful presence even in those works normally regarded as critical of the concept Providing close readings of the ways in which the premodern or primitive is strategically deployed in contemporary critical writings, Li's interdisciplinary study is a timely and forceful intervention into current debates on the politics and ethics of otherness, the problems of cultural relativism, and the vicissitudes of modernity

Metasemiosis and Metapragmatics

Abstract: Long confined to mathematical and logical investigation of metalanguage–object language relations, metasemiosis (the process by which signs come to represent other signs) has become, in recent decades, the focus of a growing body of empirical research. The key development has been the recognition by Michael Silverstein of a distinction between metasemantics and metapragmatics. Whereas metasemantics deals with the reflective use of metasigns (in particular, metalanguage) to represent language understood in the Saussurean sense, metapragmatics deals with the reflective use of signs to represent the uses of language and other object signs. Metapragmatic semiosis turns out empirically to be a widespread and important feature of language use around the globe. Metasemiotic research has also brought into clearer focus the nature of reflective processes themselves. Explicit awareness or consciousness of signs (such as words) appears to be a metasemiotic phenomenon created by the deployment of semantic metasigns. Pragmatic metasigns, however, where the metasign–object sign relationship is based upon icons and indices, are relatively less accessible to explicit consciousness, although research suggests that humans are able to acquire implicit understandings, attitudes, and skills through such pragmatically reflective processes. The study of metasemiosis promises new insights into the nature of knowledge and consciousness, as well as a more adequate conceptualization of reflection and its agentive role in human conduct.

Sound-symbolic approach to Japanese mimetic words

Abstract: Sound-symbolic words are an important aspect of the Japanese language which facilitates communication and provides speakers with rich means of expression. To non-native speakers of the language, however, these words remain one of the most difficult word layers to master. In addition to the fact that mimetic words are culturally loaded and thus have unique nature, the process of learning them is also hindered by the shortage of efficient teaching materials and linguistic research. This study examines the close relation between same strings of sounds observed in words and their semantic properties, and introduces 37 phonaesthematic patterns. Moreover, contradictory to Saussure’s traditional theory of the unmotivated nature of the linguistic sign, it argues that in some mimetic words there exists a close relation between sound and meaning.

The South African sign language machine translation project: issues on non-manual sign generation

Abstract: We report on the South African Sign Language Machine Translation project, and more specifically on our experience in extending a synchronous tree-adjoining grammar parser approach in order to generate non-manual signs and construct a suitable signing space. We show that post-processing of the target language tree, after transfer rules have been applied, results in a simple and efficient mechanism to generate information on non-manual signs for use in a signing avatar.

Revisiting the equal sign: Some Grade 8 and 9 learners' interpretations

Abstract: This paper reports on a study that explored learners' uses and interpretations of the equal sign. The study involved Grade 8 and 9 learners in a secondary school in Johannesburg, South Africa. Much of the earlier research done on the equal sign has focussed on the primary school level, but this one focuses on secondary school learners. The study shows that the most dominant interpretation of the equal sign amongst Grade 8 and 9 learners is as a do-something, unidirectional symbol. Learners see the equal sign as a tool for writing the answer rather than as a relational symbol to compare quantities.

Rethinking children's programming with contextual signs

Abstract: We present an approach to children's programming inspired by the semiotics of comics. The idea is to build computer programs in a direct and concrete way by using a class of signs that we call contextual signs. There are two aspects that distinguish contextual signs from other sign systems used for programming. The first is that the signs are displayed in the immediate visual context of the object that they refer to. The second is that the signs are used to illustrate actions and properties in a way that is directly perceivable by the user. We argue that these two properties make contextual signs a promising high-level approach for building systems that are rich in dynamic properties, such as the ones that children often like to build.

A dialectical materialist reading of the sign

Abstract: In this article, I reread sections of Karl Marx's Capital, substituting the term 'sign' wherever he used 'commodity.' I show that such a substitution yields statements that have close family relationship with the results of twentieth century scholarship in a variety of disciplines. The question about the origin of such family resemblance can be found in the notion of substitution that occurs in trade and translation. The results of this rereading suggest that a theory of sign can be grounded in the notion of substitution, translation, and use rather than in the notion of reference and meaning. This approach thereby fundamentally depsychologizes our understanding and theories of the sign.

Kolokol : spectres of the Russian bell

Abstract: Kolokol: Spectres of the Russian Bell, submitted by Jason Kaminski in fulfilment of the requirements of PhD (Humanities and Social Sciences) candidature at the University of Technology, Sydney, is an interpretative history of Russian bells (kolokola) and bell music (zvon). As a cultural object and sign, the Russian bell is associated with ideas of transcendence, and ideological and creative ‘vision.’ This interpretation of the signification of the kolokol as a sign arises directly from the perception that the bell is essentially a physical (anthropomorphic) body that is capable of ‘projecting’ or ‘transcending’ itself in the form of a spectrum. This essential ‘spectrality’ defines a history of the Russian bell as an instrument of magical, spiritual and religious ritual, as a cultural artefact associated with changing ideological movements (paganism, Christianity and communism) and as a sign represented synaesthetically in image, sound and text. Ethnographic and campanological studies observe that the kolokol ‘reflects Russian social history like a mirror’, representing the ‘voice of God’ or Logos as an aural or ‘singing’ icon, pointing to the primordial origins of language. This dissertation further investigates the idea that the kolokol acts as an ‘acoustical mirror’ and ‘ideological apparatus’: a medium or spectre through which Russian history and culture is interpellated and reflected. The various logical streams (storytelling, legend, script, text, song, cultural theory, philosophy and ethnography) that contribute to this dissertation form a textual ‘polyphony’ through which the essential meanings and ‘personae’ of the kolokol as a cultural object are interpreted. The bell is regarded as presenting an enigma of signification that must be resolved through investigation and definition. The thesis concludes that the kolokol acts as an iconic sign of the creative ‘Word’ (Logos) and as a symbolic sign that implies a ‘bridge’, copula or psychic ‘hook’, articulating the relationship between the cosmos and consciousness, the material and spiritual, the real and imaginary. Keywords: Russia, Russian History, Russian Arts, Russian Music, Russian Poetry, Russian Political History, Russian Orthodoxy, Russian Revolution, Bell-founding, Bell Music, Bell-ringing, Campanology, Iconology, Kolokol, Zvon. Word-count: 82,250 (excluding endnotes) 98,300 (including endnotes).

Societal grounding is essential to meaningful language use

Abstract: Language engineers often point to tight connections between their systems' linguistic representations and accumulated sensor data as a sign that their systems really mean what they say. While we believe such connections are an important piece in the puzzle of meaning, we argue that perceptual grounding alone does not suffice to explain the specific, stable meanings human speakers attribute to each other. Instead, human attributions of meaning depend on a process of societal grounding by which individual language speakers coordinate their perceptual experience and linguistic usage with other members of their linguistic communities. For system builders, this suggests that implementing a strategy of societal grounding would justify the attribution of bona fide linguistic meaning to a system even if it had little perceptual experience and only modest perceptual accuracy. We illustrate the importance and role of societal grounding using an implemented dialogue system that collaboratively identifies visual objects with human users.

Living Shi'ism: Instances of Ritualisation Among Islamist Men in Contemporary Iran

Abstract: Iranian Shi‘ism is, among other things, known for its rituals of sorrow. In the contemporary Iranian context, active participation in these rituals has become a sign of support for the Islamist reg ...

Meaning, metaphor, and interpretation: Modeling new worlds

Abstract: Metaphor is founded in the logic of otherness and excess and involves a movement of displacement that leads sense outside the sphere of the same, the commonplace, plain meaning. The processes of metaphorization activate interpretive trajectories in the sign network that may be distant from each other, and favor the migration of sense through interpretive and translative processes among signs. Associations and interconnections are created in the sign network on the basis of similarity understood a la Peirce in terms of affinity and attraction. Such associations are not only of the analogical type but also of the homological. Metaphor is structural to the acquisition of knowledge, to inferential procedure; it is the place where sense is generated in human language systems. The capacity for metaphor is specifically human and is connected with the human primary modeling device, the human capacity for creativity, innovation, the play of musement.

Stages in the evolution and development of sign use (sedsu)

Abstract: We present the rationale and ongoing research of an interdisciplinary international project aiming at developing a novel theory of semiotic development, on the basis of broad developmental, cross-species and cross-cultural research. We focus on five socialcognitive domains: (i) perception and categorization, (ii) iconcity and pictures, (iii) space and metaphor, (iv) imitation and mimesis and (v) intersubjectivity and conventions, each of which is briefly described. Our main hypothesis is that what distinguishes human beings from other animals is an advanced capacity to engage in sign use, which on its part allowed for the evolution of language.

The Emerging Paradigm Shift in Social Work - in the Context of the Current Reforms of European Social Work Education

Abstract: The century-old profession of social work has been characterized, among other things, by ideological commitment and political alertness. However, it has also been accompanied by diverging positions and professional invisibility. This has been perceived as both a strength and a weakness for social workers among other traditional helping professions — of which most are now academic or striving for that. It is argued here that social work is about to change its position, developing from the status of a semi-profession towards maturity and full professionalization. For contemporary social work, the challenge is thus to reconstruct old experiences and narratives as professional integrity, visibility and power in a qualitative work-through process. The clarification and rethinking of themes such as invisible loyalties, dichotomous thinking, conflictual positions, and incompatible meaning of social work research are highlighted as crucial tasks on the path to professional maturity. The increasing interest in and acknowledgement of theory and research in education and professional practice is, alongside an increased, although still ambivalent, emphasis on evidence – knowledge – or information-based practice, a sign of an epistemological change. New ways of thinking, whereby theory, practice, and research are viewed as an integrated, continuous interplay, may be defined as a paradigm-shift. This emerging paradigm shift and epistemological change in social work simultaneously implicates an identity transformation, a role shift. Both first- and second-order change are necessary for facilitating developmental changes. First-order change can be achieved by structural reforms or technical interventions. On the other hand, processes of dynamically reconstructed outcomes imply second-order change, meaning that things become qualitatively different from before. The current reform taking place through the Bologna process is an example of this. A case illustration from the University of Iceland is presented where the pros and cons of the reform process are examined.

Passions of the Sign: Revolution and Language in Kant, Goethe, and Kleist

Abstract: Passions of the Sign traces the impact of the French Revolution on Enlightenment thought in Germany as evidenced in the work of three major figures around the turn of the nineteenth century: Immanuel Kant, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Heinrich von Kleist. Andreas Gailus examines a largely overlooked strand in the philosophical and literary reception of the French Revolution, one which finds in the historical occurrence of revolution the expression of a fundamental mechanism of political, conceptual, and aesthetic practice. With a close reading of a critical essay by Kleist, an in-depth discussion of Kant's philosophical writing, and new readings of the novella form as employed by both Goethe and Kleist, Gailus demonstrates how these writers set forth an energetic model of language and subjectivity whose unstable nature reverberates within the very foundations of society. Unfolding in the medium of energetic signs, human activity is shown to be subject to the counter-symbolic force that lies within and beyond it. History is subject to contingency and is understood not as a progressive narrative but as an expanse of revolutionary possibilities; language is subject to the extra-linguistic context of utterance and is conceived primarily not in semantic but in pragmatic terms; and theindividual is subject to impersonal affect and is figured not as the locus of self-determination but as the site of passions that exceed the self and its pleasure principle. At once a historical and a conceptual study, this volume moves between literature and philosophy, and between textual analysis and theoretical speculation, engaging with recent discussions on the status of sovereignty, the significance of performative language in politics and art, and the presence of the impersonal, even inhuman, within the economy of the self.