Le monde naturel, entre corps et cultures

À partir d’un projet de recherche sur la gestualité (presque abandonné ensuite par la sémiotique structurale), Greimas avait élaboré dans Du sens la notion de « monde naturel », en parallèle à celle de « langue naturelle ». La relation entre mots et choses n’est pas référentielle (de représentation) mais intersémiotique (de traduction). Cette idée pose les bases théoriques d’une sémiotique où le sens est vu comme possibilité virtuelle de transcodage et la signification comme réalisation concrète de ce même transcodage. Relire les pages greimassiennes dédiées à ces questions permet aussi d’interroger certaines hypothèses actuelles de naturalisation du sens et du corps.Within the context of a research program concerning gesture (almost abandoned by structural semiotics in the following years), in Du sens Greimas has elaborated the concept of “natural world”, in parallel to the linguistic concept of “ natural language ”. The relationship between words and things is not one referential (representation of the world by the language), but, rather, inter-semiotic (translation of world into language, and vice versa). Such idea lays down the theoretic basis of a semiotic according to which sense is intended as virtual possibility of transcodification, and signification as concrete realization of such transcodification. Reading Greimas’ pages dedicated to such matters raises certain doubts in respect of all the hypothesis of naturalization of sense and body

Fragmentos de um discurso político. Intervenções críticas

O presente ensaio defende a pertinência do olhar semiótico sobre a política, assim como o caráter político da pesquisa em semiótica. Por meio de desenvolvimentos acerca da organização discursiva na política contemporânea, e da ideia de discurso político, o autor elabora análises e reflexões acerca de temas e paixões com os quais ele identifica um caminho específico da semiótica para responder aos questionamentos promovidos pelo campo da política. Para isso, realiza intervenções críticas, enquanto postura semiótica fundadora. O trabalho visa também a desconstruir mitos e significações naturalizadas. Tais gestos semióticos são consequência da orientação geral que permite à produção dos discursos: uma postura política e, consequentemente, ética que orienta os processos semióticos de construção e de interpretação dos dispositivos discursivos

Culture and politics of laziness, from fairy tales to Oblomov and Bartleby

La thèse de cet article est que la paresse n’est pas une propriété psychologique d’un sujet individuel mais un sentiment collectif : c’est une réaction, voire une rébellion, contre ceux qui nous enferment dans une culture qui voit l’activité comme une valeur suprême, souvent comme une fin en soi. La paresse est la réponse à ceux qui nous forcent à faire et à exagérer, à nous donner à nos occupations avec zèle et constance, dévouement total et persévérance aveugle. Donc, il n’est pas vrai qu’une personne paresseuse ne fait rien, ou plutôt qu’elle fait tout ce qu’elle peut pour ne rien faire. Le paresseux travaille frénétiquement afin de créer les conditions parfaites qui lui permettent d’activer son inertie. Cet article essaie de démontrer cette thèse en analysant certains textes exemplaires tels que Oblomov de Gontcharov, et en la reliant, en amont, aux contes de fées russes traditionnels et, en aval, au célèbre conte de Melville Bartleby.The thesis of this paper is that laziness is not a psychological property of an individual subject but a collective sentiment: it is a reaction, or perhaps even a rebellion, against those who lock us within a culture that sees activity as a supreme value, often as an end in itself. Laziness is the response to those who force us to do and overdo, to give ourselves over to our occupations with zeal and constancy, total dedication and blind perseverance. So, it is not true that a lazy person does nothing, rather they do everything they can in order to not do anything. They work frantically in order to create the perfect conditions that allow them to activate their inertia. This paper tries to prove this thesis by analyzing some exemplary texts such as Goncharov's Oblomov, and linking it, upstream, with traditional Russian fairy tales and, downstream, with Melville Bartleby's famous tale.The thesis of this paper is that laziness is not a psychological property of an individual subject but a collective sentiment: it is a reaction, or perhaps even a rebellion, against those who lock us within a culture that sees activity as a supreme value, often as an end in itself. Laziness is the response to those who force us to do and overdo, to give ourselves over to our occupations with zeal and constancy, total dedication and blind perseverance. So, it is not true that a lazy person does nothing, rather they do everything they can in order to not do anything. They work frantically in order to create the perfect conditions that allow them to activate their inertia. This paper tries to prove this thesis by analyzing some exemplary texts such as Goncharov's Oblomov, and linking it, upstream, with traditional Russian fairy tales and, downstream, with Melville Bartleby's famous tale

L’univers du téléphone portable. Microrites, paraboles et récits

Le téléphone portable n’est pas seulement une exceptionnelle réussite commerciale. Sa diffusion transforme peu à peu la façon même de communiquer, et par suite les modes de relation sociale. À cet égard, le plus intéressant du point de vue sémiotique est d’observer comment cet objet technologique suscite l’émergence de formes d’hybridation inédites entre sujets et objets – corps et machines – toujours plus étroitement imbriqués les uns aux autres. D’où l’impossibilité de s’en tenir à la distinction entre une intersubjectivité exclusivement humaine et une interobjectivité purement technologique. La dimension anthropomorphe et la dimension objectale forment désormais une seule (et très complexe) réalité sociale, et aucune forme d’intersubjectivité n’est plus pensable indépendamment d’une interobjectivité.The popularity of the cellular phone is not merely a commercial phenomenon. It has transformed ours ways of communicating and, as a consequence, our social relations. More importantly, from a semiotic point of view, this technological object has contributed to the creation of new body, a hybrid, where body and machine meet, where human subjects and non-human objects coalesce. Thus, it becomes impossible to distinguish between an entirely human intersubjectivity and an exclusively technological inter-objectivity. Both the anthropomorphic and the “ objectal ” dimensions merge in one complex social reality, and inter-subjectivity cannot be conceived anymore without a concurrent interobjectivity

Retoriche di brand: narrazioni e valori

The brand is an ambiguous object. Born as a tool of hard and pure marketing, therefore as the keystone of hyper-organization of individual and collective consumption, it gradually ended up to disengage from its economic-business bases to become a promoter and spokesman of small mythic narratives and social micro-values, thus restoring those forms of identity vanished with the infamous disappearance of the great narratives. Therefore, while the current iconoclasts blame logos - destroying them physically -, brands tend gradually to disappear, allowing their absence. This results in a double movement of action and passion whose rhetoric enliven our personal and social existences.Il brand è un oggetto ambiguo. Nato come strumento del marketing duro e puro, dunque chiave di volta dell'iperorganizzazione dei consumi individuali e collettivi, ha finito progressivamente per sganciarsi dalle sue basi economico-aziendali per farsi promotore e portavoce di piccole narrazioni mitiche e microvalori sociali, andando a ricostituire quelle forme identitarie venute meno con la famigerata scomparsa delle grandi narrazioni. Cosi, mentre gli attuali iconoclasti se la prendono con i logo, fisicamente distruggendoli, le griffe tendono progressivamente a scomparire, lasciando posto alla loro assenza. Ne deriva un doppio movimento di azione e di passione le cui retoriche allietano le nostre esistenze personali e sociali

Lugares comunes sobre Barthes

La obra multifacética de Roland Barthes ha ejercido una considerable influencia en la semiótica contemporánea. El artículo señala los principales conceptos que se han prestado a discusión en la vasta producción del semiólogo francés, como "escritura", "crítica", "sentido común". Refiriéndose particularmente a los primeros libros como Mythologies, Le degré zero de l'écriture o Le plaisir du texte, esta con tribución analiza la forma en que estos libros y conceptos fueron recepcionados por sus contemporáneos y la actualidad del pensamiento barthesiano.The paper presents the facinating and multifacetic works of french semioticians Roland Barthes and his influence in contemporary semiotics. Main subjects as "writing" (écriture), "critics" and "common sense " are analize with particular enphasis in his books Mythologies, Le dégré zero de l'écriture and Le plaisir du texte. The contribution show the actuallity of Barthe's theory of literature and semiotics

Herschel-ATLAS and ALMA: HATLAS J142935.3-002836, a lensed major merger at redshift 1.027

Context. The submillimetre-bright galaxy population is believed to comprise, aside from local galaxies and radio-loud sources, intrinsically active star-forming galaxies, the brightest of which are lensed gravitationally. The latter enable studies at a level of detail beyond what is usually possible by the observation facility. Aims. This work focuses on one of these lensed systems, HATLAS J142935.3−002836 (H1429−0028), selected in the Herschel-ATLAS field. Gathering a rich, multi-wavelength dataset, we aim to confirm the lensing hypothesis and model the background source’s morphology and dynamics, as well as to provide a full physical characterisation. Methods. Multi-wavelength high-resolution data is utilised to assess the nature of the system. A lensing-analysis algorithm that simultaneously fits different wavebands is adopted to characterise the lens. The background galaxy dynamical information is studied by reconstructing the 3D source plane of the ALMA CO (J:4 → 3) transition. Near-IR imaging from HST and Keck-AO allows to constrain rest-frame optical photometry independently for the foreground and background systems. Physical parameters (such as stellar and dust masses) are estimated via modelling of the spectral energy distribution taking source blending, foreground obscuration, and differential magnification into account. Results. The system comprises a foreground edge-on disk galaxy (at zsp = 0.218) with an almost complete Einstein ring around it. The background source (at zsp = 1.027) is magnified by a factor of μ ~ 8−10 depending on wavelength. It is comprised of two components and a tens-of-kpc-long tidal tail resembling the Antennæ merger. As a whole, the background source is a massive stellar system (1.32-0.41+ 0.63 × 1011 M⊙) forming stars at a rate of 394 ± 90  M⊙ yr-1, and it has a significant gas reservoir MISM = 4.6 ± 1.7 × 1010 M⊙. Its depletion time due to star formation alone is thus expected to be τSF = MISM/ SFR = 117 ± 51 Myr. The dynamical mass of one of the components is estimated to be 5.8 ± 1.7 × 1010 M⊙, and, together with the photometric total mass estimate, it implies that H1429−0028 is a major merger system (1:2.8-1.5+1.8)

The relationship between maximal left ventricular wall thickness and sudden cardiac death in childhood onset hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background: Maximal left ventricular wall thickness (MLVWT) is a risk factor for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). In adults, the severity of left ventricular hypertrophy has a nonlinear relationship with SCD, but it is not known whether the same complex relationship is seen in childhood. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between left ventricular hypertrophy and SCD risk in a large international pediatric HCM cohort. Methods: The study cohort comprised 1075 children (mean age, 10.2 years [±4.4]) diagnosed with HCM (1–16 years) from the International Paediatric Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Consortium. Anonymized, noninvasive clinical data were collected from baseline evaluation and follow-up, and 5-year estimated SCD risk was calculated (HCM Risk-Kids). Results: MLVWT Z score was <10 in 598 (58.1%), ≥10 to <20 in 334 (31.1%), and ≥20 in 143 (13.3%). Higher MLVWT Z scores were associated with heart failure symptoms, unexplained syncope, left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, left atrial dilatation, and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia. One hundred twenty-two patients (71.3%) with MLVWT Z score ≥20 had coexisting risk factors for SCD. Over a median follow-up of 4.9 years (interquartile range, 2.3–9.3), 115 (10.7%) had an SCD event. Freedom from SCD event at 5 years for those with MLVWT Z scores <10, ≥10 to <20, and ≥20 was 95.6%, 87.4%, and 86.0, respectively. The estimated SCD risk at 5 years had a nonlinear, inverted U-shaped relationship with MLVWT Z score, peaking at Z score +23. The presence of coexisting risk factors had a summative effect on risk. Conclusions: In children with HCM, an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between left ventricular hypertrophy and estimated SCD risk. The presence of additional risk factors has a summative effect on risk. While MLVWT is important for risk stratification, it should not be used either as a binary variable or in isolation to guide implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation decisions in children with HCM

Clinical Features and Natural History of Preadolescent Nonsyndromic Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND Up to one-half of childhood sarcomeric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) presents before the age of 12 years, but this patient group has not been systematically characterized. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to describe the clinical presentation and natural history of patients presenting with nonsyndromic HCM before the age of 12 years. METHODS Data from the International Paediatric Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Consortium on 639 children diagnosed with HCM younger than 12 years were collected and compared with those from 568 children diagnosed between 12 and 16 years. RESULTS At baseline, 339 patients (53.6%) had family histories of HCM, 132 (20.9%) had heart failure symptoms, and 250 (39.2%) were prescribed cardiac medications. The median maximal left ventricular wall thickness z-score was 8.7 (IQR: 5.3-14.4), and 145 patients (27.2%) had left ventricular outflow tract obstruction. Over a median follow-up period of 5.6 years (IQR: 2.3-10.0 years), 42 patients (6.6%) died, 21 (3.3%) underwent cardiac transplantation, and 69 (10.8%) had life-threatening arrhythmic events. Compared with those presenting after 12 years, a higher proportion of younger patients underwent myectomy (10.5% vs 7.2%; P = 0.045), but fewer received primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (18.9% vs 30.1%; P = 0.041). The incidence of mortality or life-threatening arrhythmic events did not differ, but events occurred at a younger age. CONCLUSIONS Early-onset childhood HCM is associated with a comparable symptom burden and cardiac phenotype as in patients presenting later in childhood. Long-term outcomes including mortality did not differ by age of presentation, but patients presenting at younger than 12 years experienced adverse events at younger ages. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American College of Cardiology Foundation.Peer reviewe

Relationship Between Maximal Left Ventricular Wall Thickness and Sudden Cardiac Death in Childhood Onset Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Background: Maximal left ventricular wall thickness (MLVWT) is a risk factor for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). In adults, the severity of left ventricular hypertrophy has a nonlinear relationship with SCD, but it is not known whether the same complex relationship is seen in childhood. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between left ventricular hypertrophy and SCD risk in a large international pediatric HCM cohort. Methods: The study cohort comprised 1075 children (mean age, 10.2 years [+/- 4.4]) diagnosed with HCM (1-16 years) from the International Paediatric Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Consortium. Anonymized, noninvasive clinical data were collected from baseline evaluation and follow-up, and 5-year estimated SCD risk was calculated (HCM Risk-Kids). Results: MLVWT Z score was = 10 to = 20 in 143 (13.3%). Higher MLVWT Z scores were associated with heart failure symptoms, unexplained syncope, left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, left atrial dilatation, and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia. One hundred twenty-two patients (71.3%) with MLVWT Z score >= 20 had coexisting risk factors for SCD. Over a median follow-up of 4.9 years (interquartile range, 2.3-9.3), 115 (10.7%) had an SCD event. Freedom from SCD event at 5 years for those with MLVWT Z scores = 10 to = 20 was 95.6%, 87.4%, and 86.0, respectively. The estimated SCD risk at 5 years had a nonlinear, inverted U-shaped relationship with MLVWT Z score, peaking at Z score +23. The presence of coexisting risk factors had a summative effect on risk. Conclusions: In children with HCM, an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between left ventricular hypertrophy and estimated SCD risk. The presence of additional risk factors has a summative effect on risk. While MLVWT is important for risk stratification, it should not be used either as a binary variable or in isolation to guide implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation decisions in children with HCM.Peer reviewe