Semiotics of Culture(s). Basic Questions and Concepts

The article introduces some basic questions and concepts related to the semiotic study of culture and cultures. The first question “Is Semiotics necessary to life?” lead to analyze the very role of Semiotics and semioticness for human beings. The article suggests a double necessity of semiotics, intended at the same time as a quality proper to humankind and as a scientific knowledge necessary to reflect and become aware of our unperceived “cultural nature”. The second question is related to a basic yet forgotten claim of Semiotics. That is to say the idea of considering semiotic analysis not only as a form of intellectual knowledge but also as an action that aims to transform reality. This lead to define semiotician as a political subject and to reflect to the general status of subject and subjectivity from a semiotic point of view. The third question aims to face the paradox of a cultural space that is always singular and plural at the same time. The article propose some theoretical and methodological tools – e.g. the circular intellectual movement represented by analysis and catalisys – in order to manage the complex relations between parts and whole, micro and macro, order and chaos, sense and nonsense. The second part of the article propose three key concept for contemporary and future semiotics of culture(s): semiosphere, formation, translation. Starting from the structural paradoxes of the idea of semiosphere, developed in the '80s by Juri Lotman, the article proposes a dynamic and glocal idea of culture(s) based on a relationalist approach. The idea of formation allow to map the different types of semiotic relation involved in the study of culture. At the same time the concept of formation encapsulates the one of sign, text, discourse, language. The latter will be central to describe the various modes of translation and to understand the implications of translation on the constitution or transformation of common sense and reality. The article propose to consider translation as key concept that allows to articulate different semiotic visions and schools as well as to describe some of the most interesting and thorny dynamics and devices of actual cultural life.