28458 - Semiotics of Culture (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is able to: see the culture as semiotic construction; identify the cultural relevance of different semiotic events (individual or collective), as literature, rituals, institutions, television, fashion, common sense; analyze the meaning structures that characterize the cultural events.

Course contents

The course will reflect on the nature of the mechanisms and processes of signification that characterize cultures as semiotic constructions, focusing on the origins of a semiotics of culture, its methodological specificity, its current articulations and hybridizations with different knowledge. The authors of reference will be Lévi-Strauss, Lotman, Eco. Particular attention will be given to the history/memory relationship and the role of historical discourse in our culture.


The lessons will address some key words, which play a particular role within the semiotics of culture:


Structure

Myth

Semiosphere

Encyclopedia

Symbol

Common sense

Ideology


The topics addressed will be preparatory to the second integrated part of the exam, namely SEMIOTICS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, held by Prof. Demaria.


In fact, in content, the course is a unique course.

Readings/Bibliography

This bibliography is in common with the exam of "Semiotica delle scienze sociali" because the exam is unified.

 

Mandatory readings

- Lorusso, A.M., Semiotica della cultura , Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2010

- Lévi-Strauss, C., Antropologia strutturale, Milano, il Saggiatore, 1990 (cap. II, XI, XV)

- Lotman, J. e Uspenskij, B., Tipologia della cultura, Milano, Bompiani, 1975 (parte I + “il metalinguaggio delle descrizioni tipologiche della cultura” + “Semiotica dei concetti di vergogna e paura”)

- Lotman, J., La semiosfera. L'asimmetria e il dialogo nelle strutture pensanti,Milano, La nave di Teseo (pagg. 1-115)

- Lotman, J., “Tesi per un’analisi semiotica delle culture” in Tesi per una semiotica delle culture, Roma, Meltemi, 2006

-Eco, U. “Dizionario vs. Enciclopedia” in Semiotica e filosofia del linguaggio, Torino, Einaudi, 1984

-Lorusso, A.M. “Pensando al futuro: memoria e posterità” in Versus-Quaderni di studi semiotici, n. 131, 2020

- Demaria, C., Semiotica e memoria, Roma, Carocci, 2006 (Prima parte: “Riflessioni sulla memoria)

- Demaria C., Il trauma, l'archivio, il testimone, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2012 (Introduzione e prima parte)

- Violi, P. , Paesaggi della memoria, Milano, Bompiani, 2014 (parte I. “Ricordare il trauma: dalla coazione al patrimonio traumatico”)

 

Moreover, one text more, to be selected between these ones and useful for the final essay. This list is partial and just orientative and other titles could be agreed with the teacher:

 

- Del Marco, Vincenza, Pezzini Isabella(ed), Passioni collettive. Cultura, politica e società, Roma, Edizioni Nuova Cultura [http://www.nuovacultura.it/] , 2012

-Demaria, C.; Panico, M., “Remembering the other, repositioning oneself. The right to a biography and autocommunication in perpetrators’ descendant documentaries”, Social Semiotics, special issue “Sociosemiotic Critique. A Lotmanian Perspective”, a cura di A.M. Lorusso e F. Sedda, 5, 2022.

-Demaria, C.; Violi, P., “The Act of Documenting: Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing”, Media, War & Conflict, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635219871910

-Demaria, C.; Violi, P., Reading Memory Sites Through Signs. Hiding into Landscape, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press.

-Demaria, C. Piluso, F., “Immaginari premediati. Futuro e consumo del presente nelle narrazioni seriali”, Vs, 2, 2020.

- Demuru, P., Essere in gioco, Bologna, BUP, 2014

- Geertz, C., Antropologia interpretativa, Bologna, il Mulino, 1988 (cap. 1, cap. 3 e cap. 4)

- Hammad M., “Il Museo della Centrale Montemarini a Roma”, in I. Pezzini, P. Cervelli eds. Scene del consumo: dallo shopping al museo, Meltemi, Roma, 2006, pp.203- 279.

-Lorusso, A.M., L'utilità del senso comune, Bologna, il Mulino, 2022

-Mangano, D.- Sedda, F., eds, Simboli d’oggi, Milano, Meltemi, 2023

- Marrone. G. Figure di città. Spazi urbani e discorsi sociali, Mimesis, 2013

- Marrone, G. Buono da pensare. Cultura e comunicazione del gusto, Carocci, 2014

- Marrone, G. Semiotica del gusto. Linguaggi del cibo, della cucina, della tavola, Mimesis "Insegne", 2016

- Mazzucchelli F., Urbicidio. Il senso dei luoghi tra distruzioni e ricostruzioni nella Ex Jugoslavia, BUP, Bologna, 2010

- Panosetti D., Pozzato M.P. (ed) Passione vintage. Il gusto per il passato nei consumi, nei film e nelle serie televisive, Roma, Carocci, 2013

- Pezzini, I. Semiotica dei nuovi musei, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2011

- Pezzini, I. Spaziante, L. (eds) Corpi mediali. Semiotica e contemporaneità, ETS, 2014

- Pozzato M.P. (ed), Testi e memoria. Semiotica e costruzione politica dei fatti, Bologna, il Mulino, 2010

- Pozzato, MP, Visual and Linguistic Representations of Places of Origins. An Interdisciplinary Analysis, Cham, Switzerland, Springer International Publishing, 2018

- Salerno, D. Terrorismo, sicurezza, post-conflitto, Libreria Universitaria, 2012

-Stano, S.-Leone, M. Ideologia, “Lexia”, giugno 2023

Teaching methods

The course will alternate to traditional lectures analytical lessons that will see the presentation of stuents' and scholars' works.

Since the final exam consists of an analytical exercise, the frequency of lessons and active participation is strongly recommended, so as to progressively participate in the acquisition of the analysis tools.

Assessment methods

There will be a single exam at the end of the two modules. It will be divided in two separate exam tests.

1. A written test, in the classroom, on the computer, in which the student is required to answer three open questions on the theories and concepts discussed during the two modules of the course.
2. A written test that the student will prepare at home and deliver by the day of the chosen session. The test will consist in identifying and setting up a concrete case of analysis, by distinguishing:

-Area of investigation

-the question that will be investigated and the research hypothesis

-the corpus and body of work on which the analysis will be based

-methodological categories deemed useful for that corpus

This exercise can be carried out in a schematic way, in the form of a ppt, or with a discursive text of a maximum of 10,000 characters.

In any case, maximum precision, detail, and concreteness of a case study are recommended.

The final mark will be the average of the marks of the two tests (50% and 50%).

 

 

 

Teaching tools

Ppt and video will be used to support the teaching.

Some additional and optional materials will be uploaded to Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Anna Maria Lorusso