Call for proposals

Studying the construction of meaning from signs is undoubtedly one of the ambitions of semiotics. As a discipline, it nevertheless gives rise to persistent debates as to what predominates during semiosis. Julien Algirdas Greimas (1974) used to say:  "Outside the text there is no salvation": this famous quote has been widely discussed and sometimes criticized for its focus on the formal structures of the text, as a principle of method. Some researchers, relying on Umberto Eco (1992), have stressed the need to take into account the "rights" of the text in order to produce a critical study of the structures of power and knowledge that are "encoded" within it (Hall, 1973). Others, taking a pragmatic stance, suggest to study semiosis "in action" and seek to explore the lived experience of the formal structures: they analyze how the text is acted upon, how signs circulate in various contexts (Odin, 2011; Darras, 2006), and how they come to be perceived, understood and interpreted through the agency, cultural prisms and social determinisms of a subject  (Saemmer, Tréhondart, 2022, 2020).

Some of these pragmatic approaches have provided modellings of the communication context in which a semiotic resource, for example a cultural or media production, is “actualized” (semio-pragmatics) and, in some cases, regulated by a socio-technical device (media semiotics [Badir, 2007], "écrits d’écran" [Jeanneret, Souchier, 2005; Gomez-Mejia, 2016], gender semiotics [Julliard, 2016]). Other approaches prefer to put the emphasis on discursive practices, where the discourse is understood as "nothing more than the spoken text and/or the procedures that govern its production" (Semprini, 2007). While researchers in line with the work that Eliseo Verón (1987) initiated in France on "social semiosis" study cultural or media productions to provide the most detailed analysis of their “grammars of production” (Lécossais, 2020) and “recognition” (Appiotti, 2020) .

For several years, many researchers, especially in the interdisciplinary field of information and communication sciences, have been developing methodologies that articulate field surveys with the analysis of the formal structures of cultural and media productions (texts, images, films, series, online newspapers, digital platforms, etc.). They put into perspective the formal analysis carried out by the semiotician with the interpretative processes as they are experienced by producers or receivers. They confront interpretative hypotheses collected on the field, and try to identify the "situated knowledge" (Haraway, 2007) and "habits of thought" (in the sense of a "habitus of thought" [Lorusso, 2018 ; Darras, 2006]) mobilized by the subjects and the researcher herself during the semiosis. Some others argue for the consideration of affects and passions, beyond meaning (Quemener, 2018), criticizing the binary frameworks that sometimes underlie discursive approaches.

This conference proposes to draw up a state of the art of the experimental variety of these "field semiotics". We invite submitters to question "situated" approaches to semiosis and to bring into dialogue methodologies that seek to observe the social practices of meaning.

Several thematics will orient this conference.

1. We will focus on the challenges posed by the hybridization of formal analysis methods with ethnographic and/or sociological methods: how to articulate these methods without giving up on the specificity of the semiotic approach?

2. From the moment we consider that meaning is no longer necessarily immanent to the text (Leeuwen, 2005), the problematization of the "situated knowledge" of the semiotic researcher could also become a central axis of our reflections.

3. We would like to give an important place to the issue of the teaching of semiotics in schools and universities, by focusing on the relations that semiotics can have with critical education to images, media and information and digital literacy practices (Lacelle, Lebrun, 2014).

4. Another field of exploration would be the articulation between semiotics and research and creation practices, with regard to artistic and authorial experiments carried out in recent years, notably on social networks and platforms (Candel, 2020).

5. Finally, the role of semiotics in the analysis of controversies and public debates could be questioned (Julliard, 2016; Simon, 2020).

In all cases, we will place methodological experimentation and field questions at the heart of the exchanges. The organization of this conference will serve as a springboard for the federation of an international research network, using empirical methods for semiotics approaches and questioning the situated knowledge of researchers, producers, receivers in semiosis situations. A publication of double-blind reviewed articles within a French academic journal is planned in a second phase.

Calendar

- Launch of the call for papers: March 10, 2022

- Deadline for submission of proposals: May 1, 2022

- Communication of the reviews by the scientific committee: June 15, 2022

Terms of submission

Proposals must be sent by May 1, 2022 to the following address: semiotiquesdeterrain@protonmail.com

- A document containing: the title of the paper, a short bio-bibliographic note (100 words maximum with indication of the name, first name and institutional affiliation) and e-mail address;

- An anonymous document containing: the title of the paper, the paper proposal of 500 words maximum including spaces, bibliography not included;

All the information concerning the international conference are also available on https://semiodeterrain.sciencesconf.org

Contacts 

Appiotti Sébastien : sebastien.appiotti@sorbonne-universite.fr

Saemmer Alexandra : alexandra.saemmer@univ-paris8.fr

Tréhondart Nolwenn : nolwenn.trehondart@univ-lorraine.fr

Bibliography

Appiotti S., « Photographiez, participez ! Cadrage du regard et pratiques photographiques au fil des mutations du Grand Palais », thèse de doctorat, Saint-Denis, Université Paris 8, 2020, https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03185227

Badir S., « La sémiotique aux prises avec les médias », Visible, n° 3, 2007, p. 173-189.

Candel E., « Poïèse et Poèse : faire avec et faire contre les outils d’écriture », Communication & langages, 203, 1, 2020, 115-134.

Darras B., « L’enquête sémiotique appliquée à l’étude des images. Présentation des théories de C. S. Peirce sur la signification, la croyance et l’habitude », dans Anne Beyaert (dir.) L’image entre sens et signification. Paris. Publications de la Sorbonne, 2006, p 15-34. 2006.

Eco Umberto, Les limites de l’interprétation, 1992, Grasset.

Gomez-Mejia G. Les fabriques de soi. Identité et industrie sur le Web, MKF Éditions, 2016.

Greimas A. J., « L’Énonciation : une posture épistémologique », Significação – Revista Brasileira de Semiótica, 1, Centro de Estudos Semióticos, Ribeirão Preto (SP), 1974, 9–25.

Hall S.  « Codage/décodage », dans Hervé GLEVAREC, Éric MAIGRET et Éric MACÉ (dir.), Cultural Studies. Anthologie, Paris, Armand Colin, 2008, p. 25-40.

Haraway D., Manifeste cyborg et autres essais. Sciences – Fictions –Féminismes, Paris, Exils éditeurs, 2007.

Jeanneret Y., Souchier E., « L’énonciation éditoriale dans les écrits d’écran », dans Communication et langages, n° 145, 200, p. 3-15.

Julliard V., « #Theoriedugenre : comment débat-on du genre sur Twitter ? », Questions de communication, 30, 2016, 135-157.

Lacelle, N., Lebrun, M., « La littératie médiatique multimodale : réflexions sémiologiques et dispositifs concrets d’application. Les apprentissages littéraciques avec les médias numériques. Littératie dans la pratique et la recherche », Forum lecture suisse, Les articles centraux (2nde éd.), 2014, http://www.forumlecture.ch/redaktionsbeitrag_2014_2.cfm

Lécossais S., « Les séries télévisées, territoires du genre », Recherches féministes, 33, 1, 2020, 17-34.

Leeuwen T., Introducing social semiotics, Routledge, 2005.

Lorusso Anna Maria, « Sémiotique et culture », dans La sémiotique et son autre, éd. Amir Biglari, Kimé, 2018, 161-176.

Odin Roger, Les Espaces de communication, PUG, 2011.

Quemener N., « “Vous voulez réagir ?”. L’étude des controverses médiatiques au prisme des intensités affectives », Questions de communication, 33, 2018, 23-41.

Saemmer A., Tréhondart N., avec Coquelin L., Sur quoi se fondent nos interprétations ? Introduction à la sémiotique sociale, à paraître aux Presses de l’Enssib en 2022.

Semprini A., Analyser la communication 2, Comment analyser la communication dans son contexte socioculturel, L’Harmattan, 2007.

Simon J., Les « Deux Marianne » : une image, des regards, des affrontements en contexte numérique », MEI, 49, 2020.

Verón E., La Semiosis sociale : Fragments d’une théorie de la discursivité, PUV, 1987, 133-144.