28460 - Semiotics of Social Sciences (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module, students will have acquired methods of analysis appropriate to the investigation of various fields of social communication, from politics to the news.

Course contents

The first part of the course (first two weeks) will take up and develop some of the themes already introduced in the Semiotics of Culture module, investigating particular aspects of the cultural dynamics at the center of contemporary semiotic debate. We will focus on some key concepts, such as that of cultural memory, trauma, the archive and spaces of memory.

The topic of memory will be particularly explored, focusing the analysis on the processes of construction, preservation and transmission of cultural memory and the relationship between collective memory and individual memory. In particular, the concept of trauma from a semiotic perspective will be explored, and various types of texts related to traumatic memory will be analyzed.

In the more specifically monographic part of the course (third-fifth week), certain “genres” of testimony will be analyzed in more detail, along with their role in memorial dynamics, dwelling mainly on examples and analysis of spaces of memory, such as museums, memorials, monuments and counter-monuments.

A detailed schedule of lectures will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Readings/Bibliography

 

Mandatory texts for attending students of both Semiotica delle Scienze Sociali and Semiotica della Cultura.

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

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

- Lotman, J. e Uspenskij, B., Tipologia della cultura, Milano, Bompiani, 1975 (parte I e parte III)

- Lotman, J., La semiosfera. L'asimmetria e il dialogo nelle strutture pensanti,Venezia, Marsilio, 1985 (pagg. 1-145)

- Lotman, J., Tesi per una semiotica delle culture, Roma, Meltemi, 2006 (seconda parte + “Il decabrista nella vita”)

-Lorusso, A.M. “Pensando al futuro: memoria e posterità” inVersus-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”)

The students that will not attend the course will have to consult the two following texts in their entirety:

Demaria, C., Semiotica e memoria, Roma, Carocci, 2006

Violi, P. , Paesaggi della memoria, Milano, Bompiani, 2014

Moreover, students are requested to choose at least one book among the following list, depending on the topic of the textual analysis they will have to set up. Other texts can be also discussed with the lecturers.

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

-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. Piluso, F., “Immaginari premediati. Futuro e consumo del presente nelle narrazioni seriali”, VS - Quaderni di studi semiotici, n. 131, 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.

- 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

Teaching methods

The course will be interactive in nature: students will be invited to participate by bringing specific case-studies for analysis. The last week of the course will be devoted to discussing the projects of the attending students.

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, one hour long, in the classroom, on the computer, in which the student is required to answer four 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%).

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

 

Teaching tools

Lectures will be supported by the multimedia tools available in the classes of the Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies.

Office hours

See the website of Cristina Demaria