Unravelling semiotics in 2022: A year in review
Unravelling semiotics in 2022: A year in review

Summary/Abstract: Just as there are life recapitulations, there are also academic reviews whose aim is to chart the accomplishments reached in a given field of study over a limited period. Semiotics, historically regarded as a somewhat “ostracized” discipline (Eco 1987), has actively pursued such endeavours, as reviews and synthesis of the field have played a crucial role in identifying roots, predecessors, and research programmes. Such efforts have contributed to establishing semiotics as an independent and autonomous discipline. Several seminal semiotic works frame the discipline’s development in a chronological narrative, and are now considered masterpieces. Roman Jakobson’s famous “Retrospect” (1981) and “A glance at the development of semiotics” (1985[1975]),4 presented at the first international congress of semiotics, as well as Thomas A. Sebeok’s proclivity towards “cataloguing semiotics” (Sebeok 1976),5 are examples of a broader effort to look back and quantify what has been achieved. Umberto Eco’s works similarly emphasized the value of reviewing, listing, and cataloguing, including what he called the “vertigo” of infinity in making lists (Eco 2009). Another example is the perhaps lesser-known The Philip Mills Arnold Semiology Collection (Russel 1973; Davis 2010). These important works, and many others not listed here due to limitations of space and time, underscore the critical role that reviewing has played in establishing semiotics as a discipline.

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