S. Petrilli et A. PONZIO, Semiotics Unbounded: Interpretive Routes through the Open Network of Signs

Susan PETRILLI and Augusto PONZIO, Semiotics Unbounded: Interpretive Routes through the Open Network of Signs, University of Toronto Press, 2005, 670 p.

The more human knowledge increases, the more signs grow and, with this expansion, the more the boundaries of the science that studies signs also grows. In Semiotics Unbounded, Susan Petrilli and Augusto Ponzio explain the explosion of the sign network in the era of global communication and discuss the important theoretical responses offered by semiotics. Providing a much-needed introductory guide to the subject, Petrilli and Ponzio explore the ever-growing frontiers of semiotics through the thought of prominent sign scholars such as Charles Peirce, Victoria Welby, Mikhail Bakhtin, Charles Morris, and Thomas Sebeok.

In an era of global communication, a global approach is necessary, and what may seem to be the whole, is only a part – a view being at once globalizing and open. Each and every sign is never self-sufficient and closed but exists always in a relation of otherness. This is true of the signs forming animals and human beings, individuals and communities, and involves the implication of all living beings in the life of all others. Semiotics Unbounded offers a new and original survey of the science of signs, evaluating it in relation to the problems of our time, not only of a scientific order, but also the problems concerning everyday social life.

Susan Petrilli is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistic Practices and Text Analysis at l'Università degli Studi di Bari.

Augusto Ponzio is the head of the Department of Linguistic Practices and Text Analysis at l'Università degli Studi di Bari.