Trajectories, paths, itineraries and routes: space dynamics between narrative models and textual recalcitrance

It is trivial to state that the narrative semiotics of Greimas used to privilege the concept of path in respect to that of trajectory. It is actually a hermeneutic problem the translation of the French “parcour” with the English “trajectory” in the Semiotic dictionary (Greimas, Courtés, 1979, entry “Parcour”). The narrative canonical scheme is constituted through narrative paths that underline the retrospective finalization of the action: this is what is sealing a meaning, structuring the unfolding of a process, a readable syntax of forms. Nevertheless, Floch was among the first to explore the necessity to articulate multiple forms of space crossing, contrastively comparing paths, trajectories, sequences and promenades, in a famous essay about the underground users in Paris (1990). Even before Floch, Eliseo Veron, with Levasseur (1983), also reasoned about the different forms of space crossing witnessed by the audience of an exposition, not remaining confined to the unifying concept of path. More recently, Jean Petitot (2017) reintroduced the trajectory, defined as a “chemin paramétré temporellement” of the actant, as a constituent concept of the morphodynamic reinterpretation of Greimas. Path and trajectory, in the frame of a discourse semantics, are actually part of a rich lexical field, encompassing also route, way, journey, ride, parabolic, course and possibly others. It is worth to renew an analysis of that field starting from certain acquisitions of the tensive semiotics. Fontanille (2006) sketched 3 other narrative macro-schemes beside the model of the quest, each one connected to a specific logic (plenitude, inanity, vacuity). Our goal is to show that the figurative featuring of the different types of dynamic relation between an actantial pole and a space of belonging, is establishing a ground for different possible relationships with the 4 macro narrative schemes outlined by Fontanille. As a ground of analysis, we are mainly interested in the worlds of contemporary fiction, starting from the interpretative challenges that the last Twin Peaks season (the third), directed by David Lynch, is proposing. The universe of Twin Peaks interweaves and multiplies the internal logics, adopting divergent frames of rationality. Beside the classic forms of detection, still related to paths of acquisition of a knowledge, Lynch is displaying a mythical genesis of his own fictional universe, creating beings that escape the search for a retrospective meaning and that can embody forms of existential trajectory aimed to dissipate or preserve their own intensity of presence. A whole frame of dynamizations of the space is hence witnessed by the fiction: a place of interpretative challenges, offering a chance for updating the models of enquiry of the narrative layer of texts. References Floch, J.-M., 1990, Sémiotique, marketing, communication. Sous le signes, les stratégies, Paris, PUF. Fontanille, J., 2006, The Semiotics of Discourse, New York, Peter Lang. Greimas, A.J, Courtés, J., 1979, Sémiotique. Dictionnaire raisonné de la théorie du langage, Paris, Hachette. Petitot, J., 2017, “Mémoires et parcours sémiotiques du côté de Greimas”, Nouveaux Actés Sémiotiques, 120. Veron, E., Levasseur, M., 1983, “Ethnographie d'une exposition”, in Histoires d’expo, Peuple et Culture, Paris, CCI Centre Georges Pompidou, pp. 29-32.
País: 
Italia
Temas y ejes de trabajo: 
Semiótica y narratología
Semióticas de los lenguajes visuales, sonoros y audiovisuales
Institución: 
NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts) - Milan
Mail: 
giacomo.festi@gmail.com

Estado del abstract

Estado del abstract: 
Accepted
Desarrollado por gcoop.