If we define semiotics as the discipline that studies social discursivity through the empirical manifestation of discourses in texts, practices, interactions, and other objects of study, then paying attention to how discourses circulate in space and time is an essential task for semiotic research. This approach to the social life of discourses has been well-known in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world ever since it was put forward by Argentinean semiotician Eliseo Verón.
Aiming to overcome the structural account of semiosis, Verón embraced the work of Charles S. Peirce to ground the social semiotic approach he outlines in La
semiosis social (1987). Verón’s social semiotics proposes to study texts as signifying conglomerates but not following a principle of immanence, as is the common practice in structural semiotics. Instead, he proposes studying discourses in relation to their circumstances of production and consumption. This is how Verón proposes to use the categories of the grammar of production and the grammar of recognition to study how texts emerge and are read in different social and historical contexts.
The idea of circulation is central to Verón’s approach since, between production and recognition, there is always a gap in which meaning emerges. The semiotics of circulation involves leaving aside the synchronic and immanentist approach, and focusing instead on the diachronic dimension, that is, on the life of discourses
over time. Moreover, in a global world like ours, a semiotics of circulation implies traveling between different geographies with the purpose of understanding the diverse manifestations of a specific social discourse – e.g., feminism and environmentalism – in contexts different from that of their origin.
In this special issue of Punctum, we invite contributions that elaborate theoretically or investigate through specific case studies the semiotics of circulation and, in
general, aspire to develop a non-immanentist problematics of semiosis by raising issues such as: How do texts and discourses circulate between the moment of their
production and that of their recognition? How do they travel from one time or space to another? What happens with sense, meaning, and signification in those travels? How do discourses circulate between traditional media and digital/social media? What happens with circulation in the gap of meaning existing in live interactions between individuals? How do semiotic methodologies work on different scales of circulation, for example, in mediatized and non-mediatized discourses?
Prospective authors should submit an abstract of 250-300 words by email to the guest editors, Gastón CINGOLANI (gastoncingolani@gmail.com) and Sebastián MORENO (morenobarreneche@gmail.com), including their institutional affiliation and contact information.
Acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication, given that all research articles will undergo peer review.
TIMELINE:
Deadline for Abstracts: May 31, 2023
Notice of acceptance of the Abstract: June 12, 2023
Deadline for submission of full papers: September 10, 2023
Peer Review Due: October 31, 2023
Final Revised Papers Due: November 30, 2023
Publication Date: December 2023