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The Semiotics of Love brings together work on early symbolism, literary practices, and contemporary communication on the theme of romance and the idea of love to forge an understanding of the semiotic-cultural side of romance. Moving beyond psychological and neuroscientific scholarly analyses of love, Marcel Danesi works to interrogate the cultural constructions of love across societies. This book analyzes romantic love from the general perspective of semiotics-that is, from its more generic interpretive angle, rather than its more technical one. The specific analytical lens used is based on the notion that we convert our feeling structures into sign structures (words, symbols) and sign-based constructions (texts, rituals, etc.), which then allow us to reflect upon something cognitively, rather than just experience it physically and emotionally.
List of contents
1. XOXO: The Religious Origins of Romantic Symbols.- 2. The Language of Love.- 3. Love and Sex: Are the Two Connected?.- 4. Writing Love: The Literature of Romance.- 5. Love in Images.- 6. Love Rituals.- 7. Love and Marriage: Do They Go Together Lie a Horse and Carriage?
About the author
Marcel Danesi is Professor of Semiotics and Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is renowned for his work in several areas of semiotic study, including pop culture and metaphor. He has been a guest on several broadcast outlets, including National Public Radio. Among his major recent publications are The History of the Kiss!: The Birth of Popular Culture (Palgrave, 2013); Murder in Plain English, with Michael Arntfield (2017); and Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics, 3rd edition (Palgrave, 2018). His work has been featured in the New York Times, Toronto Star, and Psychology Today, among other print publications. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica, the leading journal in semiotics.
Summary
The Semiotics of Love brings together work on early symbolism, literary practices, and contemporary communication on the theme of romance and the idea of love to forge an understanding of the semiotic-cultural side of romance. Moving beyond psychological and neuroscientific scholarly analyses of love, Marcel Danesi works to interrogate the cultural constructions of love across societies. This book analyzes romantic love from the general perspective of semiotics—that is, from its more generic interpretive angle, rather than its more technical one. The specific analytical lens used is based on the notion that we convert our feeling structures into sign structures (words, symbols) and sign-based constructions (texts, rituals, etc.), which then allow us to reflect upon something cognitively, rather than just experience it physically and emotionally.
