Materialistic Semiotics and Social Reality

This book presents writings in semiotics, linguistics, and the philosophy of language—significantly revised, retranslated, and rearranged for this edited volume—by Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, Adam Schaff, Augusto Ponzio, Massimo A. Bonfantini, Jeff Bernard, and Susan Petrilli. Collectively, the book provides a powerful sign theory useful to investigate how things work, their sense, and meaning. The expanding global world is our social reality, supported and generated in, with and by signs, verbal and nonverbal. Interconnectivity in the sign network is a destiny for life, human and beyond. This book explains an expression that circulates in everyday language: ‘materialism’. Misunderstandings and disagreements abound regarding its use and meaning, even in special languages—like those of politics or other human sciences concerned with sociohistorical reality under its different aspects. In response, this collection outlines a materialistic approach to problems relevant to signs and society, both contemporary and historical, building towards a scientifically-based materialistic semiotics. It is therefore of great interest to a transversal audience, including those engaged in anthropology, communication studies, cultural studies, ethics, identity studies, ideology, peace studies, political economics, sociology, and translation theory, among numerous other fields.