Brief Introduction to the Semiotics of Protest

Abstract

The article proposes the objective of using the theories and the most up-to-date methods of Semiotics of Culture in order to develop a better understanding of a central communicative phenomenon of contemporary societies: the protest. The topic of the protest will be not discussed from the point of view of its causes and social-historical motivations, but from the point of view of its language: what meaning and which communication phenomena are designated with the term “protest”? What contextual conditions must be verified in order that a protest takes place? How are languages, discourses, texts, and the signs of protest articulated? Through what codes? Or against to what codes? How could be read and interpreted the meaning of a protest according to an audience, and with what pragmatic effects? And more: do there are a few ‘protest cultures’, affected by the changes according to historical periods and socio-cultural areas, and how they interact with the evolution of and in particular with the origin and development of digital media? In detail, how you can describe communication dynamics that characterize the protest in its relationship with the social networks? More in general: in which theoretical framework may be defined the relationship between sense, consensus, and dissent?