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This book delves into the concepts of general and spatial semiotics, discussing the differences and interactions between semiotic means of diverse types and levels. It introduces an integrative model ("the sign prism") which unites many famous schemes of sign connection. It considers the human as a being included in a self-created semiosphere of signs and interacting with a sphere of natural signals and indexes available also to animals. The majority of the text is devoted to spatial semiotics, and its distinctions from temporal ways of sign connection. Its specific categories and particular visual-spatial codes are considered here as the peculiar means of communication and thinking. An essential feature of the book is the application of the author's concepts of spatial semiotics to research of structures and the historical changes of visual arts.

This unique book, inspired by the work of Umberto Eco - one of the greatest semioticians of all times - provides a compelling overview of current developments in semiotic research, bringing together various academic voices and critical reflections on the nature and function of signs, signification, and communication. Contributors, including Eco himself, discuss the status quo of the discipline, its scope, theoretical orientations, and methodological approaches, shedding light on the cognitive and philosophical complexity of the meaning-making process and form–meaning interfaces. The book is an outcome of the SIVO Signum-Idea-Verbum-Opus project initiated by Umberto Eco's keynote address during his visit at the University of Łódź in 2015. More theoretical insights and further explorations into contemporary semiosphere can be found in Current Perspectives in Semiotics: Texts, Genres, and Representations, published simultaneously by Peter Lang

The article investigates the socio-cultural meaning of the face in relation to its natural and biological features, focusing on the particular domain ofmating habits. After surveying the role of the 'face' in the sexual behaviors of several non-human animals, and especially of primates, the article ponders on the crucial role that the face plays in the seductive discourse which precedes and accompany mating in all human cultures and also in many primates' behaviors. It, then, deals with the transformation that these seductive patterns of signification and communication undergo in the passage from face-to-face intercourse to digital dating. Here, the gap between the necessarily realistic representation of one's bodily face and the idealized version of it allowed by digital picture editing widens, to the point that new epistemic parameters start to circulate throughout the digital semiosphere.

Abstract
From an anthroposemiotic perspective, this article discusses the presence of trade names written in a language other than Spanish in Venezuela. The notion of identity formulated by García Gavidia and by Andacht is used, as well as notions of violence and symbolic efficacy by Bourdieu and the semiotics of culture by Lotman. An approach was made from the rationalist-deductive epistemological perspective, using the hypothetico-deductive method to analyze a corpus representing foreign trade names observed in Venezuela, which, however, merely served as an empirical control mechanism of deduction. Results reveal that such names are an expression of identity/otherness conflict; at the same time, they can be considered as a cultural text that bursts violently into another established text, by acting within the scope of a semiosphere that transform them into a device with cultural memory expressing an ideological hegemony.

Abstract
In terms of semiotics, all human cultural phenomena and intellectual activities are expressed by signs to present different human achievements and the significance of human existence; they are all symbolized activities. The linguistic cultural study has a long history and is well achieved, but for the in-depth research there are more fields to cultivate. The study of linguistic culturology in terms of semiotics could result in some productive attempts: the study of the text of signs providing the research basis, the focus lying in the variations of signs information, and the secondary modeling system of signs making the research sphere; the dialogic relationship of signs building up the structure, and the dynamic equilibrium of semiosphere constructing the measurement. Above all, in terms of semiotics, the study of linguistic culturology must lead to new developments and discoveries.

Abstract
Mathematics is often defined as a "universal" or "conventional" language. Yet, things may be not as simple as that. The theoretical lens of the semiosphere, with the related notions of context and spatial dynamics, within which the concept of cultural conflict is defined, provides a new framework for research in mathematics education to consider the cultural aspects of mathematical discourses. It is under this framework that learning awareness occurs, and teaching challenges are no longer conceived as independent of the content taught (or to be taught). It is not a question of nullifying the cultural conflict, but exploiting the concept of asymmetry to make sense of mathematical discourse. Meeting foreign cultures leads to looking at one's own practices. An example drawn from Danish numerals, juxtaposed with a mathematical discourse occurring in a sixth-grade classroom in Italy, delves into the practical application of the framework.

Dante, Florenskii, Lotman : journeying then and now through medieval space / David Bethea -- Lotman's other : estrangement and ethics in culture and explosion / Amy Mandelker -- Pushkin's Anzhelo, Lotman's insight into it, and the proper measure of politics and grace / Caryl Emerson -- Post-soviet political discourse and the creation of political communities / Michael Urban -- State power, hegemony, and memory : Lotman and Gramsci / Marek Steedman -- The ever-tempting return to an Iranian past in the Islamic present : does Lotman's binarism help? / Kathryn Babayan -- The self, its bubbles, and illusions : cultivating autonomy in Greenblatt and Lotman / Andreas Schönle -- Lotman's Karamzin and the late soviet liberal intelligentsia / Andrei Zorin -- Iconic self-expression : bipolar asymmetry, indeterminacy, and creativity in cinema / Herbert Eagle -- Post-ing the soviet body as tabula phrasa and spectacle / Helena Goscilo -- Eccentricity and cultural semiotics in imperial Russia / Julie A. Buckler -- Writing in a polluted semiosphere : everyday life in Lotman, Foucault, and De Certeau / Jonathan H. Bolton -- Afterword : Lotman without tears

AbstractAmazigh literature has undergone a veritable historic shift from oral to written form, following the constitutional and institutional recognition of this indigenous language in Morocco and Algeria. We intend to seize this historic moment by focusing on a titrological analysis which, in our view, would be able to highlight the pragmatic side of a stammering literature that would like to proclaim its rebirth and speak to the world. The titular discourse of these novels, still in an experimental phase, informs us about the semiospheres that nourish and irrigate this writing that defossilizes a buried memory, repressed and threatened by the inexorable desymbolization process that traditional cultures are undergoing. This body of work could never be reduced to a simple scription of a narrative folklore that provides it with its cultural semantics; it is driven by the desire to integrate the international literary heritage by dialoguing with it and drawing inspiration from it.

This book reveals the core features of digital culture, examined by means of semiotic models and theories. It positions commercial and market principles in the center of the digital semiosphere, avoiding the need to force the new cultural reality into the established textualist or pragmatist paradigms. The theoretic insights and case studies presented here argue for new semiotic models of inquiry that include working with big data, user experience and nethnography, along with conventional approaches. The book develops a new concept of identity in the digital age, analyzing the digital flows of recognition and value, which led to the tremendous success of Social Media and the Web 2.0 era. Self-expression, entertainment and consumerism are seen as the major drivers of identity formation in the post-truth era, where the self can no longer be considered independently of a given person's communication devices, where a substantial part of it is stored and actualized. It will be of interest to semioticians and researchers working on digital culture

The article is dedicated to representations of a French village of La Favière in the first-wave Russian émigré literature and painting. The objects of study include S. Chernyy's poetry, A. Kuprin's Gouron Headland and M. Tsvetaeva's poems. Emphasis has also been placed on the epistolography, memoiristics and paintings of Russian emigrants visiting the village. Various Favière's images are treated – by analogy with Toporov's St. Petersburg text –as a Favière text: an integrated system of texts, created within a specific time frame and within the boundaries of the semiosphere, characterized by a high degree of consistency in terms of code, context and addressee, understandable to a specific population and containing a detailed baggage of meanings. The way in which Favière is presented as locus amoenus, makes the Favière text unique. In the system of local texts of Russian émigré literature, connected by the motif of foreignness as locus horribilis, Favière is a rare example of Arcadia found in exile.

Abstract
This study examines the relationship between disaster and religion by exploring three main questions: how religion shapes the interpretation of disasters and the subsequent recovery processes; how disasters transform religious practices; and how religious interpretations may coexist with scientific explanations of the same disaster. By focusing on the Aceh society's experience after the 2004 tsunami, this paper argues that Islam, which serves as the central modeling system of Aceh culture, played two interconnected roles in the post-tsunami period: one of providing explanations for the inexplicable disaster and the other of guiding the ensuing actions. Furthermore, the tsunami had a significant impact on the practice of Islam in Aceh, as demonstrated by the shift toward the Sharia system to create a more Islamic Aceh society in the future. This phenomenon thus serves as an example of an explosive change in a semiosphere, as explained by Juri Lotman. This paper also identifies the coexistence of religious and scientific interpretations of the tsunami among the Acehnese, highlighting their distinct social functions.

The current study aims to make an overall semiotic analysis of translation strategies used to reproduce the imagery and relevant cultural features in John Fowles' "The Collector." Regarding literary translation as a cross-cultural dialogue aimed to achieve both artistic and aesthetic effects contributes much to analyzing the semiotic features of the translated discourse and deciphering the relevant socio-cultural information decoded in the source language text. Therefore, it has been decided that translation is a communicative act that facilitates the transfer of meaning in a cross-cultural perspective and focuses on reproducing the source language semiosphere. The semiotic approach is well-established in translation studies with the subtlety of methods and criteria. Therefore, it was considered that the analysis of lexico-semantic, grammatical and stylistic translation strategies would usefully supplement and extend the scope of literary text research. In the current study, comparing the source and target language texts has shown that the translator employs various translation transformations to transmit the author's pragmatic intent and socially relevant information in the target language.

How do creative workers draw on their city context as they interpret their subjective career success over time? This article aims to answer this question with a qualitative study of 140 creative workers in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The results illuminate how subjective career success stems from a need for recognition that draws on a city's identity. Mobilising Lotman's concept of semiosphere, we propose that creative workers use city identity to understand what 'soft' factors they can harness from the city context. They filter city identity based on three recognition-related needs that are contingent on their level of work experience. Our contribution is threefold. First, we provide a nuanced view of the social and symbolic context in which careers are embedded, highlighting its multilayered, multivocal and multimodal nature. Second, we provide a fine-grained understanding of the interplay between an individual's career need for recognition and their interpretation of city identity. Third, we shed light on recognition as a facet of subjective career success, which is particularly relevant to creative workers.

The 2016 US elections offer the opportunity for interpretation within a continuum of semiotic processes. This is particularly acute in regards to previous events, such as the visit in August 31, 2016 of US president candidate Donald Trump to Mexico. This paper aims to approach this political event as a cultural text containing several subtexts with diverse layers of meaning production: the mentioned visit as a candidate; Mexican president Peña Nieto's dismissal of secretary Videgaray; Candidate Trump's rally in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. Drawing from Lotman's ideas, special attention is given in this semiotic process to the inflection point where the paths of history cross and become unpredictable (1999; 2013; 2000). Also, it incorporates this theorist views about the concept of text and semiosphere (1996), in particular as container of collective cultural memory, and meaning production, as well as a point of view from a gender perspective. The analysis includes rhetorical devices, such as ad populum and ad hominem arguments, metaphors, as well as pragmatic strategies, such as intensifiers and attenuators to appeal to audience emotions, which make evident a populist right wing ideology embedded in political discourse.

The studies of Ugo Volli on philosophy of communication recall, in some occurren- ce, the conception of ecology to describe the mode of operation of communication, which is considered as an ecosystem with the characteristic of the lotmanian semio- sphere: autonomy and autopoietics, interlinking and stratification. The article aims to attach this conception to the digital communication, focusing on the morphology of texts and its informational payload structured in data sequences and discrete unity, and exploring two approach which can be applied in scientific research. These ones are indicative of a empiricism that is allowed by the modularity of digital object. Secondarily, the virtuality and the abstractness of data will be consider as the fundamental condition of an invisible informational semiosphere whose mani- pulation and automatization are representative of forms of power and knowledge negotiations. In the last part it will try a parallelism with the traditional ecology about the loss of biodiversity, the pollution issues and the scares of a pervasive and automated technology, with the purpose to juxtapose a politics of language, in particular of informatic and programming language, by a semiotic of digital cultures.