SEMIOTICS IN ITALY: CESARE SEGRE, GIANFRANCO BETTETINI, PIER PAOLO PASOLINI, EMILIO GARRONI

LAUREN E MUELLER, Purdue University

Abstract

As Terrence Hawkes points out, the concept of structuralism has a distinctly French "air" about it but did not, however, develop from a strictly French base. One may look back as far as Giambattista Vico's La Scienza nuova to find the seeds of what is now understood by modern critics as structuralism and semiotics. As a cognitive system, Italian semiotics (with only few exceptions such as Eco) is by and large overlooked or at best, lightly touched upon by English speaking critics (again, with only a few exceptions). It is the intent of this dissertation to study four Italian semioticians whose works are often ignored in this country by all but a handfull of speakers of Italian. Chapter one will introduce the concept of structuralism and present an overview of semiotics, concentrating primarily on selected works by Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Barthes, and C. S. Peirce. I will then situate the Italian anti-Crocean concepts of art of the early 1960's against this background. Chapters two through four will deal with selected works of Cesare Segre, Gianfranco Bettetini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Emilio Garroni. Chapter five will compare these authors, singling out the complementary elements of each and supporting their views with theories from disciplines other than the fine arts (e.g. philosophy of science and psychology). The central issue appears to be that of perception as a basis for cognition. This presentation of theories will be followed by a brief application of the theories to Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and a statement regarding the "artistic" nature of semiotics.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Comparative literature

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