Semiotic Ideologies

Massimo Leone is Professor of Philosophy of Communication, Cultural Semiotics, and Visual Semiotics at the Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences, University of Turin, Italy, part-time Professor of Semiotics in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Shanghai, China, associate member of Cambridge Digital Humanities, University of Cambridge, Director of the Institute for Religious Studies at the “Bruno Kessler Foundation”, Trento, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Caracas, Venezuela. He has been visiting professor at several universities across five continents. He has authored fifteen books, edited more than sixty collective volumes, and published more than six hundred articles in semiotics, religious studies, and visual studies. He is the winner of a 2018 ERC Consolidator Grant and of a 2022 ERC Proof of Concept Grant. He is also editor-in-chief of Lexia, the Semiotic Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Communication, University of Turin, Italy, co-editor-in-chief of Semiotica (De Gruyter), and co-editor of the book series “I Saggi di Lexia” (Aracne), “Semiotics of Religion” (De Gruyter), and “Advances in Face Studies” (Routledge).

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of Diagrams, Tables, and FiguresPart 1: From Language Ideologies to Semiotic Ideologies1 Introduction and Synthesis1 Introduction2 A Theory of Modish Usages3 The Origins of the Concept of “Semiotic Ideology”4 Beliefs and Assumptions5 The Semiotics of Language Ideologies6 Meta-syntax7 Meta-pragmatics8 Meta-semantics9 Conclusions10 A Summary of the Ensuing Chapters2 Research Methodology1 Introduction2 Cultures, Brains, and Maths3 Fractals and Semiotic Resemblance4 Semiospheric Symmetries5 A Typology of Symmetries in the Semiosphere6 ConclusionsPart 2: The Coordinates of Meaning-Making3 Semiotic Ideologies of Agency1 Introduction2 The Energy of Motivation3 Objective, Subjective, and Inter-subjective Motivation4 Indexical Motivation5 Iconic Motivation6 Promoting Motivation7 Demoting Motivation8 Motivational Rhetorics9 Conclusions4 Semiotic Ideologies of Time1 Introduction2 Temporal and Aspectual Cultures3 Non-verbal Aspectuality4 Towards a Cultural Semiotics of Temporal and Aspectual Ideologies5 Ideologies of the Past6 Ideologies of the Future7 Ideologies of the Present8 Conclusions5 Semiotic Ideologies of Space1 Introduction2 The Semiotics of Invisible Frontiers3 Invisible Frontiers and the Task of Social Scientists4 Ethno-semiotics as a Seismometer of Invisible Frontiers5 Invisible Frontiers in an Italian Tramway6 Invisible Frontiers in an Italian Post Office7 ConclusionsPart 3: The Dynamics of Meaning-Making6 Semiotic Ideologies of Perception1 Introduction2 The Cognitive Physiology of Déjà Vu3 The Semiotics of Déjà Vu4 The Recognition of the Unseen5 The Signification of Singularity6 The Necessity of Imperfect Memory7 Hallucinating8 Towards the pan-mnemonicon9 Conclusions7 Semiotic Ideologies of Relation1 Introduction2 Semiotic Ideologies of Connection and Mystical Stereotypes3 The Meaning of Connectedness4 Expansions and Contractions5 Ontologies and Phenomenologies of Connectedness6 Agencies of Connectedness7 Grounds of Connectedness8 Semiotic Ideologies of Connectedness9 Conclusions8.1 Semiotic Ideologies of Generation: Causation1 Introduction2 Three Kinds of Randomness3 Random Networks4 Semiotic Randomness5 Semiosis Unchained6 Semiosis in Chains7 Semiosis and Semiosphere8 Interpretive Scales and Meta-habits9 Inhabited and Uninhabited Semiosis10 Over-complexification, Over-simplification, and Significance11 Conclusions8.2 Semiotic Ideologies of Generation: Motivation1 Introduction2 Being, Mind, and Sign3 Reflexes, Signs, and Symptoms4 Interpreting Interpretants5 Faking Indexicality6 Indicality and Indexicality7 Conclusions8.3 Semiotic Ideologies of Generation: Cognition1 Introduction2 The Ultimate Nature of Scripts3 Scripting Rhetorics4 Script Ideologies5 The Populist Script in Education6 The Contagion of Cognitive Populism7 The Subversion of Scripts8 The Infrastructure of Cognitive Populism9 The Masochist Script of Irony10 The Masochist Hero11 The Quest for a New Script12 Examples as Narrative Gradients13 Kitsch Dandies and Kitsch Jihadis14 ConclusionsPart 4: The Mechanisms of Meaning-Sharing9 Semiotic Ideologies of Interpretation1 Introduction2 A View from Distance3 Semiotics under Scrutiny4 Moving Forward5 The Purpose of Literature?6 Conclusions10 Semiotic Ideologies of Observation1 Introduction2 Modes of Existence of the Observer Actant3 The Anorexic Observer Actant4 The Deep Ideological Roots of a Semiotic Confrontation5 An Oscillatory Model of Cultural Change6 Transparency and Opacity in the Juridical Observer Actant7 The Circuit of the Veil8 Counterbalancing Trends9 Conclusions: Fashion as a General Semiotic Framework11 Semiotic Ideologies of Mediation1 Introduction2 The Gestural Common Sense3 Gestural Normativity and Meta-normativity4 Sprezzatura5 The Cognitive Economy of Semiosis6 Semiosis and Technology7 Diagrams and Schemes8 Loss of the Indexical Aura and Disintermediation9 The Aura of the Face10 Facial Stereotypes and Schemes11 Reenchanting the Face12 A Paradoxical Thirst for Uniqueness13 The Market of Indexicality14 ConclusionsPart 5: Making and Unmaking Sense12 Semiotic Ideologies of Orientation1 Introduction2 Public Hermeneutics Endangered3 Topological Relativism4 Extreme Features5 Deontic Meta-discourses6 Extreme Rationales7 The Semiotic Danger of Extremism8 Extreme Agencies9 The Conundrum of Cultural Change10 Internal Dynamics of Semiospheric Changes11 Reversing the Big Question12 The Metaphysics of Fashion13 Semiotic Ideologies of Memory1 Introduction2 Nostalgia at Home3 The Invention of Nostalgia4 Types of Urban Nostalgia5 The Dialectics of Ersatz and Phantom6 Conclusions14.1 Semiotic Ideologies of Identity: Sameness1 Introduction2 Reproduction as Triadic Relation3 Nature and Culture in the Semiotic Ideologies of Reproduction4 A Different Sense of Reproduction5 Paradoxes of the Copy14.2 Semiotic Ideologies of Identity: Selfness1 Introduction2 In Praise of Ignorance3 A Blind Literary Date4 Digital Literary Dating5 Conclusions14.3 Semiotic Ideologies of Identity: Otherness1 Introduction2 Encountering the Other3 A Typology of Unfamiliarity: Otherness, Extraneousness, Unawareness4 From Otherness through Extraneousness to Unawareness: Chinese Examples5 Conclusions15 ConclusionBibliography 363Index 387