Redefining Literary Semiotics

1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4438-0499-8
Verlag: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 255 Seiten

This volume marks a shift. For it reveals how literary semiotics at present has moved toward methodological pluralism. The sharp lines of division, especially between the two most dominant approaches, those of C.S. Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure, have dissolved and a manifest synergy has emerged from the deepening appreciating that the focal concern of literary scholarship is irreducibly heterogeneous. This heterogeneity necessitates a variety of approaches. The significance of literary texts is neither entirely identifiable with authorial intention nor susceptible to empirical verification. Even so, the possibility of shared meaning and mutual understanding, whether or not acknowledged, animates the work of literary scholars. Approaches and theories in which communication and representation are explained, rather than explained away, deserve a fuller hearing than they have received in the recent past. The contributors to this volume highlight the communicative functions of literary texts and, more controversially, the representational possibilities secured by literary production.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ljungberg, Christina

Veivo, Harri

Johansen, Jørgen Dines

Über Autor(innen)

Harri Veivo is adjunct professor at the Institute for Art Reasearch, University of Helsinki. He is specialized in literary semiotics and contemporary French literature.

Christina Ljungberg is adjunct professor of English and American Literature at the University of Zurich. She has published widely on literary, visual and cognitive semiotics.

Jorgen Dines Johansen is professor of general and comparative literature at the University of Southern Denmark. He is one of the leading international scholars in literary semiotics.