Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2158621
P. Adams, O. Lavrenova
ABSTRACT Landscape semiotics can be explored by focusing on Vladimir Lenin, whose likeness once graced more than 14,000 toponyms, museums, statues and monuments. During the Soviet period, Lenin monuments reflected a symbolic language linking communist power and ideology to particular sculptural characteristics. After 1991, the significance of Lenin statues took multiple paths of evolution in what Lotman would call “explosion.” Depending on the geographical and political context, Lenin’s statues took on different sorts of “afterlife.” They were variously: (a) preserved and left in place to symbolize the legitimacy of post-Soviet elites, (b) taken for granted but permitted to deteriorate, (c) removed, relocated or destroyed to indicate the end of Soviet occupation, and (d) captured and reworked for use in place promotion and capitalist marketing. These various semiotic trajectories demonstrate a Lotmanian “explosion,” evident in the post-Soviet landscapes of Russia, the former Soviet Republics, and the West.
{"title":"Monuments to Lenin in the post-Soviet cultural landscape","authors":"P. Adams, O. Lavrenova","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2158621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2158621","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Landscape semiotics can be explored by focusing on Vladimir Lenin, whose likeness once graced more than 14,000 toponyms, museums, statues and monuments. During the Soviet period, Lenin monuments reflected a symbolic language linking communist power and ideology to particular sculptural characteristics. After 1991, the significance of Lenin statues took multiple paths of evolution in what Lotman would call “explosion.” Depending on the geographical and political context, Lenin’s statues took on different sorts of “afterlife.” They were variously: (a) preserved and left in place to symbolize the legitimacy of post-Soviet elites, (b) taken for granted but permitted to deteriorate, (c) removed, relocated or destroyed to indicate the end of Soviet occupation, and (d) captured and reworked for use in place promotion and capitalist marketing. These various semiotic trajectories demonstrate a Lotmanian “explosion,” evident in the post-Soviet landscapes of Russia, the former Soviet Republics, and the West.","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":"32 1","pages":"708 - 727"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46468722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2157171
Remo Gramigna
ABSTRACT The journey inside Facebook’s semiosphere revolves around the present-day controversy on how algorithms foster polarization and discord in one of the biggest and most popular social media platforms, namely, Facebook. The present work focuses on the so-called Facebook Files as a specific case study. By drawing on these investigations, the present study discusses what are the principles used by the Facebook algorithms in order to select a certain type of content and to direct attention to it, whilst generally discarding other types of content considered not enough engaging. By drawing on the perspective of the semiotics of culture, this paper makes an analogy between Ju. Lotman’s model of the “semiosphere” and the Facebook’s digital semiosphere with the goal of unpacking how the selection, diffusion, and suppression of online content is geared towards the polarization of ideas.
{"title":"Inside Facebook’s semiosphere. How social media influence digital hate and fuel cyber-polarization","authors":"Remo Gramigna","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2157171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2157171","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The journey inside Facebook’s semiosphere revolves around the present-day controversy on how algorithms foster polarization and discord in one of the biggest and most popular social media platforms, namely, Facebook. The present work focuses on the so-called Facebook Files as a specific case study. By drawing on these investigations, the present study discusses what are the principles used by the Facebook algorithms in order to select a certain type of content and to direct attention to it, whilst generally discarding other types of content considered not enough engaging. By drawing on the perspective of the semiotics of culture, this paper makes an analogy between Ju. Lotman’s model of the “semiosphere” and the Facebook’s digital semiosphere with the goal of unpacking how the selection, diffusion, and suppression of online content is geared towards the polarization of ideas.","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":"32 1","pages":"606 - 633"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45319968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2157169
A. Lorusso, F. Sedda
ABSTRACT The text aims at investigating the vitality of Lotman's thought, focusing on its theoretical specificities (compared to other methodological approaches), on its recurring themes, but above all on its analytical, somehow “operational” utility. In particular, the authors reflect on the critical scope of Lotman's thought and on how the traditional unveiling vocation of semiotics finds in Lotman an adequate renewal for the problems posed by the contemporary world (populisms, new media ecosystems, new forms of collective subjectivity…).
{"title":"For a semiotics of culture as a critique of culture*","authors":"A. Lorusso, F. Sedda","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2157169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2157169","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The text aims at investigating the vitality of Lotman's thought, focusing on its theoretical specificities (compared to other methodological approaches), on its recurring themes, but above all on its analytical, somehow “operational” utility. In particular, the authors reflect on the critical scope of Lotman's thought and on how the traditional unveiling vocation of semiotics finds in Lotman an adequate renewal for the problems posed by the contemporary world (populisms, new media ecosystems, new forms of collective subjectivity…).","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":"32 1","pages":"577 - 587"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43150395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2157172
Laura Gherlone
ABSTRACT The topic of borders is an active research area in Lotmanian studies. Starting from this scholarship, the article aims to open up fresh possibilities for interpretation of Lotman's spatial-driven theory, making it dialogue with the cultural affect studies and the current communication-focused research on the digital sphere. This theoretical framework underpins the case study covered in the essay, that is, the linguistic analysis of online narratives on migration during the COVID-19 pandemic – a prolonged situation of high-intensity relational affect in which emotions played a pivotal (agentive) role in the perception of a widespread and multidimensional crisis. Argentina is the cultural milieu of socio-semiotic scrutiny, in which distant reading and close reading cross-pollinate each other.
{"title":"Affectivization of borders in the digital sphere: migration-related online narratives in Argentina","authors":"Laura Gherlone","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2157172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2157172","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The topic of borders is an active research area in Lotmanian studies. Starting from this scholarship, the article aims to open up fresh possibilities for interpretation of Lotman's spatial-driven theory, making it dialogue with the cultural affect studies and the current communication-focused research on the digital sphere. This theoretical framework underpins the case study covered in the essay, that is, the linguistic analysis of online narratives on migration during the COVID-19 pandemic – a prolonged situation of high-intensity relational affect in which emotions played a pivotal (agentive) role in the perception of a widespread and multidimensional crisis. Argentina is the cultural milieu of socio-semiotic scrutiny, in which distant reading and close reading cross-pollinate each other.","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":"32 1","pages":"634 - 654"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42574745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2157173
Inna Merkoulova
ABSTRACT In the article, we consider special cases of technological progress and social dystopia studied by Yuri Lotman from the point of view of the inhabitants of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. The analysis is illustrated by works of literary fiction: Kazuo Ishiguro's dystopian novels Never Let Me Go (2005) and Klara and the Sun (2021). Among the central issues discussed are the limits of technological progress, the ethics of the relationship between man and a highly intelligent artificial device, the revival of archaic models of human consciousness, the prospect of (im)possible worlds. At the end of the article, we point out the problem of maintaining the ethical memory of mankind as the mission of a scientist and humanities writer, indicated by Lotmanian perspective.
{"title":"Looking at the stars in the twenty-first century: Lotman's semiotics, progress and utopia","authors":"Inna Merkoulova","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2157173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2157173","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the article, we consider special cases of technological progress and social dystopia studied by Yuri Lotman from the point of view of the inhabitants of the first quarter of the twenty-first century. The analysis is illustrated by works of literary fiction: Kazuo Ishiguro's dystopian novels Never Let Me Go (2005) and Klara and the Sun (2021). Among the central issues discussed are the limits of technological progress, the ethics of the relationship between man and a highly intelligent artificial device, the revival of archaic models of human consciousness, the prospect of (im)possible worlds. At the end of the article, we point out the problem of maintaining the ethical memory of mankind as the mission of a scientist and humanities writer, indicated by Lotmanian perspective.","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":"32 1","pages":"655 - 670"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42300842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2158619
Peeter Selg, A. Ventsel
ABSTRACT Our paper relies on the cultural semiotics of Lotman which we bring to bear on political theory in order to develop a methodological framework that we have referred to as “political semiotics” in our previous work during the past decade. In our first section, we synthesize the core categories of the Essex school (Laclau, Mouffe, and others) of political analysis and the Tartu-Moscow school of cultural semiotics. In the next section, we move further to putting forth a concrete methodological framework for analyzing social/political reality by relating theories of power, governance, and democracy to the Jakobsonian model of communication. We call this method “political form analysis”. The guiding idea of the latter is that it is not the content (i. e. substance) of communication, but rather the form (hierarchical relations of the aspects of communication) is the crucial focus of political analysis. In the final section, we illustrate our approach by explaining the constitution of the COVID-19 crisis and their governance in Taiwan. The country has had enormous success in containing the crisis during its first waves, but has also been surprisingly unsuccessful in the third phase (starting in the spring of 2021).
{"title":"Cultural semiotics as the foundation of political semiotics","authors":"Peeter Selg, A. Ventsel","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2158619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2158619","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Our paper relies on the cultural semiotics of Lotman which we bring to bear on political theory in order to develop a methodological framework that we have referred to as “political semiotics” in our previous work during the past decade. In our first section, we synthesize the core categories of the Essex school (Laclau, Mouffe, and others) of political analysis and the Tartu-Moscow school of cultural semiotics. In the next section, we move further to putting forth a concrete methodological framework for analyzing social/political reality by relating theories of power, governance, and democracy to the Jakobsonian model of communication. We call this method “political form analysis”. The guiding idea of the latter is that it is not the content (i. e. substance) of communication, but rather the form (hierarchical relations of the aspects of communication) is the crucial focus of political analysis. In the final section, we illustrate our approach by explaining the constitution of the COVID-19 crisis and their governance in Taiwan. The country has had enormous success in containing the crisis during its first waves, but has also been surprisingly unsuccessful in the third phase (starting in the spring of 2021).","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":"32 1","pages":"671 - 688"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41756981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-20DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2157170
Paolo Demuru
ABSTRACT Scholars have highlighted the bond between conspiracy theories, new-age spirituality (conspirituality), and wellness. This paper contributes to this scholarship by critically analysing the underlying semiotic mechanisms that govern the overlap between QAnon, antivax, and Covid-19 related conspiracy theories, new age spirituality and wellness. From a Lotmanian perspective, I draw a critical semiotic analysis of the links between these three discursive realms during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially focusing on alternative health influencer Christiane Northrup’s Facebook page. To do this, I rely on Lotman’s concept of translation, as well as its development in the field of cultural semiotics. Combining Lotman’s theory of translation with Greimas’ discursive semiotics, I claim that the bond between conspiracy theories, spirituality, and wellness is based upon the translations of five semiotic cultural elements: (i) basic narratives plots; (ii) themes and thematic roles; (iii) figures; (iv) plastic features; and (v) collective passions. Drawing on this analysis, I also seek to detail how Lotman’s translation works, looking at which semiotic features are exactly translated when two or more semiosphere come into contact, as well as what logics this translation is based on.
{"title":"Qanons, anti-vaxxers, and alternative health influencers: a cultural semiotic perspective on the links between conspiracy theories, spirituality, and wellness during the Covid-19 pandemic","authors":"Paolo Demuru","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2157170","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2157170","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Scholars have highlighted the bond between conspiracy theories, new-age spirituality (conspirituality), and wellness. This paper contributes to this scholarship by critically analysing the underlying semiotic mechanisms that govern the overlap between QAnon, antivax, and Covid-19 related conspiracy theories, new age spirituality and wellness. From a Lotmanian perspective, I draw a critical semiotic analysis of the links between these three discursive realms during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially focusing on alternative health influencer Christiane Northrup’s Facebook page. To do this, I rely on Lotman’s concept of translation, as well as its development in the field of cultural semiotics. Combining Lotman’s theory of translation with Greimas’ discursive semiotics, I claim that the bond between conspiracy theories, spirituality, and wellness is based upon the translations of five semiotic cultural elements: (i) basic narratives plots; (ii) themes and thematic roles; (iii) figures; (iv) plastic features; and (v) collective passions. Drawing on this analysis, I also seek to detail how Lotman’s translation works, looking at which semiotic features are exactly translated when two or more semiosphere come into contact, as well as what logics this translation is based on.","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":"32 1","pages":"588 - 605"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41683457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-17DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2128740
Nicolae-Sorin Drăgan, Gheorghe-Ilie Fârte
This paper presents an analytical framework for analyzing how multimodal resources of emotion expression are semiotically materialized in discursive interactions speci fi c to political discourse. Interested in how political personae are emotionally constructed through multimodal meaning-making practices, our analysis model assumes an interdisciplinary perspective, which integrates facial expression analysis – using FaceReader ™ software – , the theory of emotional arcs and bodily actions ( hand gestures ) analysis that express emotions, in the analytical framework of multimodality . The results show how the multimodal choices that political actors make during discursive interactions allow them to build their political brand and make connections with the audience on an emotional level.
{"title":"The multimodal construction of political personae through the strategic management of semiotic resources of emotion expression","authors":"Nicolae-Sorin Drăgan, Gheorghe-Ilie Fârte","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2128740","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2128740","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents an analytical framework for analyzing how multimodal resources of emotion expression are semiotically materialized in discursive interactions speci fi c to political discourse. Interested in how political personae are emotionally constructed through multimodal meaning-making practices, our analysis model assumes an interdisciplinary perspective, which integrates facial expression analysis – using FaceReader ™ software – , the theory of emotional arcs and bodily actions ( hand gestures ) analysis that express emotions, in the analytical framework of multimodality . The results show how the multimodal choices that political actors make during discursive interactions allow them to build their political brand and make connections with the audience on an emotional level.","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45943201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-06DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2128739
D. Azariah
{"title":"Tourist discourse and carnivalesque humour in children’s television narratives: learning travel from Thomas, Peppa and the Go Jetters","authors":"D. Azariah","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2128739","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2128739","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47649199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-28DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2022.2128738
Benedict J. L. Rowlett, Christian Go
{"title":"“The Amazingly Fabulous Tuk tuk Race”: mobility and carnival praxis in the semiotic landscape of Phnom Penh Pride","authors":"Benedict J. L. Rowlett, Christian Go","doi":"10.1080/10350330.2022.2128738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2128738","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":21775,"journal":{"name":"Social Semiotics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47831248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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