Paul Cobley
Paul Cobley is an eminent British semiotician and narratologist.
He has served as Professor of Semiotics and Communications at London Metropolitan University. Since 2013, he is Professor in Language and Media at Middlesex University, London.
He is the President of the International Association for Semiotic Studies since 2014.
He did pioneering work in applying Peircean approaches to narratology. His important work involves the integration of different approaches and schools of semiotics. He authored the most widely translated semiotics introductory book.
He is a co-editor of the leading book series of semiotics "Semiotics, Communication and Cognition".
Books
- Cobley, Paul 1996. The Communication Theory Reader. London: Routledge.
- Cobley, Paul; Jansz, Litza 1997. Semiotics for Beginners. Cambridge: Icon Books.
- Briggs, Adam; Cobley, Paul 1998. The Media: An Introduction. Harlow: Pearson Education. Other editions: – Briggs, Adam; Cobley, Paul 2002. The Media: An Introduction. 2nd edn. Harlow: Pearson Education. – Albertazzi, Daniele; Cobley, Paul 2010. The Media: An Introduction. 3rd edn. Harlow: Pearson Education.
- Cobley, Paul 2000. [The American Thriller: Generic Innovation and Social Change in the 1970s. London: Palgrave.
- Cobley, Paul 2001. Narrative. Routledge. 267 pp.
- Cobley, Paul 2001. The Routledge Companion to Semiotics and Linguistics. London: Routledge.
- Cobley, Paul 2006. Communication Theories: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. 4 vols. London: Routledge.
- Cobley, Paul 2009. Realism for the 21st Century: A John Deely Reader. Scranton: Scranton University Press.
- Cobley, Paul 2010. The Routledge Companion to Semiotics. London: Routledge.
- Cobley, Paul; Deely, John; Kull, Kalevi; Petrilli, Susan 2011. Semiotics Continues to Astonish: Thomas A. Sebeok and the Doctrine of Signs. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
- Thellefsen, Torkild; Sørensen, Bent; Cobley, Paul 2011. From First to Third via Cybersemiotics: A Festschrift Honouring Professor Søren Brier on the occasion of his 60th Birthday. Frederiksberg: Scandinavian Book.
- Cobley, Paul; Schulz, Peter J. 2013. Theories and Models of Communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
- Favareau, Donald; Cobley, Paul; Kull, Kalevi 2012. A More Developed Sign: Interpreting the Work of Jesper Hoffmeyer. Tartu: Tartu University Press.
- Cobley, Paul 2016. Cultural Implications of Biosemiotics. Berlin: Springer.
- Kull, Kalevi; Cobley, Paul 2017. Biosemiotics in the community: Essays in honour of Donald Favareau. Tartu: University of Tartu Press.
Honors
- In 2014, he received the highest honour in semiotics – Thomas A. Sebeok award.
- Festschrift for Paul Cobley's 60th birthday: special issue of Chinese Semiotic Studies 19, 2023.
- 2025 – Honorary Doctor of the University of Tartu