Critical Theory (vols. 1–11, 1985–1993)

The Italian philosopher F. Rossi-Landi (1921-1985) conducted pioneering work in the philosophy of language. His research is characterised by a critique of language and ideology in relation to sign production processes and the process of social reproduction. Between Signs and Non-Signs is a collection of 14 articles by Rossi-Landi written between 1952 and 1984 and gives an overview of his contribution to the philosophy of language and his critique of Charles Morris, Wittgenstein, Bachtin, and his Italian contemporaries. It is in fact a project initiated by the author and now posthumously completed by the editor, with a complete bibliography of Rossi-Landi's extensive work. Susan Petrilli's Introduction gives a fresh view of the importance of Rossi-Landi's work to modern critical theory.

The topic of Language and Ideology has increasingly gained importance in the linguistic sciences. The general aim of critical linguistics is the exploration of the mechanisms of power which establish inequality, through the systematic analysis of political discourse (written or oral). This reader contains papers on a variety of topics, all related to each other through explicit discussions on the notion of ideology from an interdisciplinary approach with illustrative analyses of texts from the media, newspapers, schoolbooks, pamphlets, talkshows, speeches concerning language policy in Nazi-Germany, in Italofascism, and also policies prevalent nowadays. Among the interesting subjects studied are the jargon of the student movement of 1968, speeches of politicians, racist and sexist discourse, and the language of the green movement. Because of the enormous influence of the media nowadays, the explicit analysis of the mechanisms of “manipulation”, “suggestion”, and “persuasion” inherent in language or about language behaviour and strategies of discourse are of social relevance and of interest to all scholars of social sciences, to readers in all educational institutions, to analysts of political discourse, and to critical readers at large.

A collection of innovative essays representing the most recent developments in poetry as discourse, the discourse of power, and discourse of psychiatry and psychosis. The essays in this volume deal with questions of interpretation of poetry, psychoanalysis, and political theory. All are presented here as appropriate objects of discourse studies which go beyond conventional analysis.

n recent years, the post structuralist theories seem to have created a split in theatrological research. But, as André Helbo analyses in this book , a dialectic theory of the semiotic and the symbolic exchange bring to light a specific paradigm. From his wide experience as a semiotician and a theatrologist, the author has developed an analysis for the theory of spectacle. Focusing his study on a critical theory of the performing arts, and examining the fundamental controversies, he then offers new perspectives and new instruments of analysis: the social aspects, readability/visibility, coherence, the spectacle contract.

Translating Poetic Discourse argues in favor of a critical model that bridges between translation and women’s studies on theoretical and practical levels. It proposes key-elements to be integrated into the problem of interpretation of contemporary poetry by women, and discusses the links between gender markers and the speech situation in feminist discourse as a systematic problem.

This book will be of interest to scholars of Translation Studies, Women’s Studies, Poetry, Comparative Literature and Discourse.