Semiotique greimasianne

In this paper I argue that in the Phaedo (101b1-105b3) 1) there is an homologous (according to Greimas-Courtes’ definition of “homology”) relationship between the pragmata and the ideas which is based on a semantic logic, 2) pragmata and ideas observe the same kind of relationship which depends on “compatibility” and “incompatibility” (“conjunction” and “disjunction” for Greimas), and, 3) in this excerpt, Plato inaugurates a semiotics of the natural world. In the last argument of the Phaedo there is a discussion about the direct and indirect opposition by which Socrates states that an opposite cannot become its own opposite. When an opposite approaches a thing carrying the respective opposite, this thing will either withdraw or will cease to exist. This excerpt is close to Timaeus 56-57 in which the same warlike metaphor is employed to explain the change of matter. This metaphor shows that what is different becomes opposite. This is the case of fire and snow in the Phaedo: when the heat approaches the snow, the latter either escapes or dies. Starting from these considerations, Plato analyses the relationship of opposition. Indeed, it seems that the relationship between two things (or two ideas) can be of either similarity or dissimilarity. This allows us to look at Plato’s analysis by means of Greimas’ structural semantics which considers the basic structure of relationship (and of signification) in terms of conjunction and disjunction. The semiotic square fits well with the example of fire and snow, showing that the basic relationship between elements (things or ideas) is of polarity and analogy. This fact splits reality into two different and opposed fields according to the chosen catégorie sémique. According to these premises, a thing is a complex of properties which are opposed to the properties of another thing: this fact gives birth to an opposition of second level. This is due to the fact that a thing receives its own properties from the idea which occupies (katekhein) the thing and this means that physical processes reveal eidetic relations. Furthermore, the pragmata can be considered as epiphenomena of the ideas, i.e. as signs of the ideas since they show the structural relations among them. By following this assumption, Plato inaugurates a “semiotics of the natural world” and a “physics of the ideas”.

The evolution of comparative literature has been revealing, for more than a century, a sinuous process of self-definition: as of the beginning of the 20 th century, it has been emerging like a diverse set of research, with studies covering "international literary relations", from a historical perspective in line with the established tradition of founders and eventually building a comparative poetics, whose necessity and legitimacy are nowadays acknowledged. As far as its specific field is a "tertium comparationis, that does not belong to any of the studied texts" – or, we may add, to none of the domains to which it is associated in an interdisciplinary way – but "maintains relations with each of these", general and comparative literature is being mistaken for a "methodological utopia" (Pageaux 2000: 35). This (also) involves a relatively unrestrictive delimitation of the object and working methods (Wellek 1965: 282-295; Étiemble 1963), with all the positive connotations or the opposite ones associated with this state of fact. At the "crossroads of certain sets", each with its particularities, comparative literature beneficially feeds on these very "interferences", "meetings, exchanges" (Pageaux 2000: 34 – 35) between literatures and between domains of study. However, its very flexibility – available for constant assimilation and adaptation – determines the problem of a rigorous comparatist "methodology", founded on a coherent theory (Greimas & Courtès 1979: 49), to remain yet unsolved. The contributions of Étiemble (1958; 1963), Munteano (1967) or Marino (1988; 1998), among others, built around the concepts of "invariant" and literary "constant" have thus shaped, as of the middle of the 20 th century, a completely up-to-date research programme – yet unfinished – able to associate literary and intercultural studies, comparative literature and (inter)cultural anthropology. Resurfacing, at about the same time, the "intersemiotic" relations between literature and arts, Jakobson (1963) foreshadowed, in turn, today’s multi- and intermedial studies, even the latter’s crossing with the wide domain of comparative literature, as it is now globally understood: like an eminently interdisciplinary and – how else if not – intercultural domain. As a form of reverse ekphrasis, a piece of music or a dance may re(-)present a literary text. This paper proposes an analysis on the measure in which the semio-narrative categories and the Greimasian actantial model are relevant for the understanding of choreographic discourse as reverse ekphrasis. In particular, the study considers choreographies inspired by literary (pre)texts or pre-established narrative frames. In dance, gestural statements can be narratively semantized, caught – and thus clarified – within a story and within a constitutive aesthetics of ambiguity.

Parler aussi de cuisine, faire de la cuisine, c'est faire du sens, en le mettant en condition de signifier. D'ici cet article, portant sur l'essai très célèbre de Greimas sur la recette de la soupe au pistou, du 1979, republié dans Du sens II (1983). Il s'agit de l'analyse minutieuse d'un texte écrit, très petit et très spécifique, extrait du livre de cuisine d'Henri Philippon sur la cuisine provençale 1 , livre encore déposable dans le marché libraire. Il s'agit d'un texte exemplaire pour la sémiotique, un texte qui a été discuté plusieurs fois par maints auteurs et commentateurs 2. Ceci parce que, il faut le préciser tout de suite, cette analyse greimassienne de la recette sur la soupe au pistou n'est pas une « application » des modèles de la sémiotique narrative à un texte qui n'est pas ni littéraire ni narratif en soi, comme on le dit souvent, pour démontrer la dite « puissance » de ce mêmes modèles. Pour Greimas, il n'y pas d'applications « en soi », il n'existe pas une sémiotique théorique, pure, qui, après coup, peut être appliqué aux textes le plus divers.

[English below]
Nossa pesquisa propõe, em linha gerais, lançar as bases de um panorama historiográfico da semiótica dita da Escola de Paris. Avançamos a hipótese de que a semiótica francesa pode ser entendida como um paradigma científico nos termos de Kuhn e que a década de 1980 se configura como o período de ciência normal para a disciplina. Buscamos mostrar, a partir de uma análise preliminar de todos os números dos Bulletins dos Actes sémiotiques, de que forma a série foi se estruturando e como ela testemunha da evolução do fazer em semiótica. O caráter heterogêneo e variado dos Bulletins constitui justamente um testemunho dos debates teóricos e dos desenvolvimentos institucionais da disciplina no período, fornecendo assim os indícios necessários para a configuração da semiótica enquanto paradigma de pesquisa científico.

Abstract: In broad terms, our research aims at establishing the basis for an historiographic outlook of French school semiotics. We hypothesize that semiotics may be seen as a scientific paradigm in Kuhn's terms and that the 1980s see a period of normal science in this field. From the preliminary analysis of all of the issues of the Bulletins (series within the Actes sémiotiques), we show how the series is structured and how it witnesses the evolution of the work in semiotics. Its heterogeneous and varied character constitutes exactly a testimony of the theoretical debates and the institutional development of the discipline in the period, offering thus the necessary indications for the configuration of semiotics as a scientific paradigm of research.

Abstract
As a form of reverse ekphrasis, a piece of music or a dance may re(-)present a literary text. This paper proposes an analysis on the measure in which the semio-narrative categories and the Greimasian actantial model are relevant for the understanding of choreographic discourse as reverse ekphrasis. In particular, the study considers choreographies inspired by literary (pre)text or pre-established narrative frames. In dance, gestural statements can be narratively semantized, caught – and thus clarified – within a story and within a constitutive aesthetics of ambiguity.
Key words: intermediality, transmediality, narrative, lyric, visual semiotics, ekphrasis, dance, literature, actor, actant, actantial structure, predicate.