How can a semiotic method be defined as materialist? Applying the Marxian analysis of commodity-form to research on language and communication, the Italian scholar Ferruccio Rossi-Landi (1921-1985) tried to answer this question. More specifically, Rossi-Landi maintained that the dialectical analysis of the commodity could be fundamentally understood as a semiotic analysis of the commodity as a message. In this paper I aim to illustrate how certain aspects of Rossi-Landi’s materialist semiotics could have heuristic value with respect to the methodological implications of a materialist analysis of language and discourse. To demonstrate this assumption, I will focus on the dialectical foundations of Rossi-Landi’s homological method, namely, a method based on the hypothesis according to which production of material artefacts and production of signs and messages are characterised by a fundamental similarity, due to a common structure. Secondly, I will try to explain why the homological method – understood as an analytical device – is coherent with the theoretical (and categorical) framework of the Marxian materialist approach
Semiosis and Discursivity of the Commodity-Form: The Role of the ‘Commodity-Message Model' in Ferruccio Rossi-Landi's Materialist Semiotics
Giorgio Borrelli
2018-01-01
Abstract
How can a semiotic method be defined as materialist? Applying the Marxian analysis of commodity-form to research on language and communication, the Italian scholar Ferruccio Rossi-Landi (1921-1985) tried to answer this question. More specifically, Rossi-Landi maintained that the dialectical analysis of the commodity could be fundamentally understood as a semiotic analysis of the commodity as a message. In this paper I aim to illustrate how certain aspects of Rossi-Landi’s materialist semiotics could have heuristic value with respect to the methodological implications of a materialist analysis of language and discourse. To demonstrate this assumption, I will focus on the dialectical foundations of Rossi-Landi’s homological method, namely, a method based on the hypothesis according to which production of material artefacts and production of signs and messages are characterised by a fundamental similarity, due to a common structure. Secondly, I will try to explain why the homological method – understood as an analytical device – is coherent with the theoretical (and categorical) framework of the Marxian materialist approachI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
