Susan Petrilli


Susan Petrilli is an Italian semiotician, professor of philosophy and theory of languages at the University of Bari, Aldo Moro, Italy, and the seventh Thomas A. Sebeok Fellow of the Semiotic Society of America. She is also international visiting research fellow at the School of Psychology, the University of Adelaide, South Australia.
Petrilli is a leading scholar in semiotics. She has been a central figure in the recent recognition by semioticians that Victoria Lady Welby acted as the foremother of modern semiotics, alongside Charles Peirce, its forefather. Petrilli's book, Signifying and Understanding: Reading the Works of Victoria Welby and the Signific Movement, underscored the invaluable contribution made by Welby to semiotics, her development of the ‘significs’ theory, and the influence her theory and published works bore on contemporary semioticians such as Peirce, Ogden and Vailati.
Petrilli devised, along with Augusto Ponzio, the theory of ‘semioethics’, located at the intersection of semiotics and ethics. This theory has been applied and reinterpreted in various scholarly fields, including law, medicine, language, communication, and architecture.
She published over one hundred books and peer-reviewed articles in the field of semiotics and philosophy of language, in both English and Italian. Her works have been translated into several languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Greek, Portuguese, Serbian and Spanish.
She was recognized as a leading modern semiotician under “Susan Petrilli,” entry by Paul Cobley, The Routledge Companion to Semiotics, London, Routledge, 2010.

Biography

commissioned Petrilli to write on Victoria Welby, for the Walter Schmitz volume Essays in Significs. Sebeok thereafter invited her to examine the role played by Women in Semiotics, notably Victoria Lady Welby. What initially began as a short chapter on Welby, turned into years of archival research and a monumental book on Welby's published works and letters, namely Signifying and Understanding: Reading the Works of Victoria Welby and the Signific ''Movement. For this work, Petrilli consulted the Welby archives at York University, Toronto, Canada, the Lady Welby Library, University of London Library, and the British Library in London, United Kingdom. Welby's epistolary work was extensive, as she shared and tested ideas with approximately 460 contemporary semioticians and scholars. Paul Cobley remarked: ‘Petrilli’s odyssey has taken her from Australia to Italy, from a PhD thesis idea to the depths of the archives, and now to a future for a politically inflected, ethnically permeated, semiotics’.
Petrilli's book on Welby led to a special issue dedicated to Victoria Welby in the Semiotica'' Journal, co-directed by Petrilli, which brought together articles written by 35 authors.
As noted by the late John Deely: ‘It is more than fitting that Susan Petrilli, who pioneered the development of semioethics within the major tradition of semiotics, is the one to whom Victoria Welby is indebted for being brought to the center stage of this major development’.

Works and ideas

Semioethics

Petrilli's semioethics theory has been applied and discussed in over thirty five recently published essays and articles, including fifteen published in the American Journal of Semiotics since 2013, sixteen published in Semiotica since 2004, and others published in New Formations, Sign System Studies, Language and Dialogue, and in the legal field, notably in the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, and the Cambridge International Law Journal, as it pertains to human rights and international law.
Regarding her theory, Petrilli explains:
Semioethics is not intended as a new branch of semiotics, but rather it refers to the human capacity for listening to the other, to the capacity for critique, deliberation and responsibility. Following Sebeok’s “global semiotics”, semioethics returns to the origin of semiotics understood as “medical semiotics” or “symptomatology” and, recalling its ancient vocation to care for life, thematizes the relation between signs and values, semiotics and axiology, semiotics, ethics and pragmatism.
Ronald C. Arnett adds:
contends that the primary task of semioethics in this historical moment is the detotalization of global communication production systems. She intends semioethics as a critical and disruptive force capable of questioning global communication systems that dominate this historical moment. Semioethics challenges the characteristic unreflective social development inherent in modernity’s love of process and procedure. Petrilli connects semioethics to the mission of unmasking dominant ideologies that constitute globalized communication systems.

Academic honours

Petrilli was awarded the 7th Thomas A. Sebeok Fellow of the Semiotic Society of America in 2008, the tri-annual award for excellence in scholarship and contribution to the development of the doctrine of signs, for originality in research and for contributing to the circulation of semiotic studies internationally. She became Fellow of the International Communicology Institute in 2008, as among the top 100 scholars at a world level who have most influenced and guided studies in the field of “communicology”.

Selected bibliography

Publications

  • Signifying and Understanding. Reading the Works of ''Victoria Welby and the Signific Movement, Foreword by Paul Cobley, pp. vii-x ,, 1048pp.
  • Sign Crossroads in Global Perspective. Semioethics and Responsibility, editor John Deely,'' Preface, “In Her Own Voice”, pp. vii–ix, & “The Seventh Sebeok Fellow: Editor’s Introduction”, pp. xi–xiii, both by J. Deely, New Brunswick and London, Transaction Publishers, 2010, 330pp.
  • Expression and Interpretation in Language, Foreword by Vincent Colapietro, pp. xi–xiii, New Brunswick and London, Transaction Publishers, 2012.
  • The Self as a Sign, the World, and the Other. Living Semiotics, Foreword by Augusto Ponzio, pp. xiii–xvi, New Brunswick and London, Transaction Publishers, 2013, 320pp.
  • Victoria Welby and the Science of Signs. Significs, Semiotics, Philosophy of Language, Foreword, by Frank Nuessel, pp. xi–xviii. New Brunswick and London, Transaction Publishers, 2015, 368pp.
  • Sign Studies and Semioethics. Communication, Translation and Values , Boston, Berlin, De Gruyter Mouton, 2014. 398pp.
  • The Global World and Its Manifold Faces. Otherness as the Basis of Communication. , Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2016. 348pp.
  • Challenges to Living Together. Transculturalism, Migration, Exploitation , Milan, Mimesis International, Mimesis, 2017, 490pp.

    Books

  • Significs, semiotica, significazione, Preface by Thomas A. Sebeok, Bari, Adriatica, 1988, 290pp.
  • Man as a Sign. Essays on the Philosophy of Language '', Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, 1990, 414pp. Appendix I: The Problem of Signifying in Welby, Peirce, Vailati, Bakhtin, pp. 313–363; Appendix II: On the Materiality of Signs, pp. 365–412.
  • La ricerca semiotica, Bologna, Esculapio, 1993, 290pp.
  • Segno e valore. La significs di Welby e la semiotica novecentesca, Doctoral dissertation, 1993 / 1994, National Libraries, Rome and Florence, 350 pp.
  • Fondamenti di filosofia del linguaggio, Bari, Laterza, 1994, 361pp. .
  • Materia segnica e interpretazione. Figure e prospettive, Lecce, Edizioni Milella, 1995, 412pp.
  • Che cosa significa significare? Itinerari nello studio dei segni, Bari, Edizioni dal Sud, 1995, 278pp.
  • Su Victoria Welby. Significs e filosofia del linguaggio , Naples, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1998, 452pp.
  • Basi. Significare, inventare, dialogare, Lecce, Piero Manni, 1998, 393pp.
  • Signs of Research on Signs. Semiotische Berichte, mit: Linguistik Interdisziplinär, Jg. 22, 3, 4/1998, 183pp
  • Teoria dei segni e del linguaggio, Bari, Graphis, 1998, 212 pp., 2 ed., 2001, 3a ed. 2011.
  • Fuori campo. I segni del corpo tra rappresentazione ed eccedenza, Milan, Mimesis, 1999, 431pp.
  • Il sentire della comunicazione globale, Rome, Meltelmi, 2000, 167pp.
  • Philosophy of Language, Art and Answerability in Mikhail Bakhtin, New York, Ottawa, Toronto, Legas, 2000.
  • Semiotica dell’io, Rome, Meltemi, 2001, 209pp.
  • Thomas Sebeok and the Signs of Life, , Duxford, Icon Book; USA, Totem Books, 2001, 77pp. .
  • Teoria dei segni e del linguaggio, Bari, Graphis, 1998, 212 pp., 2 ed., 2001.
  • Thomas Sebeok i znakovi zivota, Znanost u Dzepu, Naklada Jesenski i Turk, Zagreb 2002.
  • I segni e la vita. La semiotica globale di Thomas A. Sebeok, Milan, Spirali, 2002, 279pp.
  • Views in Literary Semiotics, , New York, Ottawa, Toronto, Legas, 2003, 141pp.
  • Semioetica, Rome, Meltemi, 2003, 191pp.
  • Semiotica globale. Il corpo nel segno, , Bari, Graphis, 2004, 141pp.
  • Percorsi della semiotica, Bari, Graphis, 2005, 371pp.
  • Reasoning with Levinas, New York, Ottawa, Toronto, Legas, 2005, 57pp.
  • Semiotics Unbounded. Interpretive Routes through the Open Network of Signs , Toronto, Buffalo, London, Toronto, University Press of Toronto Press, 2005, 630pp. . .
  • The Semiotic Animal, New York, Ottawa, Toronto, Legas, 2005, 244pp. .
  • La raffigurazione letteraria, Milan, Mimesis, 2006, 304pp.
  • Tesi per il futuro anteriore della semiotica. Il programma di ricerca della Scuola di Bari–Lecce, Milan, Mimesis, 2006, 140 pp.
  • I dialoghi semiotici. Sul dialogo, sulla menzogna e la verità, sui nuovi mass–media, sulla retorica e l’argomentazione, sulla testualità e la discorsività, sull’ideologia e l’utopia 1982–2006, Naples, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2006, 191pp.
  • Fundamentos de Filosofia da Linguagem, Portuguese trans. by Ephraim F. Alves, Petrópolis, RJ, Editora Vozes, 2007.
  • Semiotics Today. From Global Semiotics to Semioethics, a Dialogic Response, New York, Ottawa, Toronto, Legas, 2007, 84pp. .
  • Percorsi della semiotica, Bari, Graphis, 2a ed. 2700, 371pp.
  • Lineamenti di semiotica e di filosofia del linguaggio, Bari, Graphis, 2008, 379pp.
  • Sign Crossroads in Global Perspective. Essays by Susan Petrilli, 7th SSA Sebeok Fellow. The American Journal of Semiotics, Volume 24.4, 305pp. .
  • Signifying and Understanding. Reading the Works of Victoria Welby and the Signific Movement, Foreword by Paul Cobley, pp. vii-x , Boston/Berlin, De Gruyter Mouton, 2009, 1048pp.
  • Sign Crossroads in Global Perspective. Semioethics and Responsibility, editor John Deely,'' Preface, “In Her Own Voice”, pp. vii–ix, & “The Seventh Sebeok Fellow: Editor’s Introduction”, pp. xi–xiii, both by J. Deely, New Brunswick and London, Transaction Publishers, 2010, 330pp. .
  • Roland Barthes. La visione ottusa, Presentation by A. Ponzio, Milan, Mimesis, 2010.
  • Parlando di segni con maestri di segni, Preface by Thomas A. Sebeok, Lecce, Pensa, Multimedia, 2011. , 254pp.
  • Thomas Sebeok e os Signos da Vida, Série Dialogaçoes, Dirigida por Maria Isabel de Moura, Tradução, Pedro Guilherme Orzari Bombonato, São Carlos, Pedro & João Editores, 2011.
  • Teoria dei segni e del linguaggio, Bari, Graphis, 1998, 212 pp., 2 ed., 2001, 3a ed. 2011.
  • Expression and Interpretation in Language, Foreword by Vincent Colapietro, pp. xi–xiii, New Brunswick and London, Transaction Publishers, 2012.
  • Interferenze. Pier Paolo Pasolini, Carmelo Bene e dintorni, Milan, Mimesis, 2012.
  • Altrove e altrimenti. Filosofia del linguaggio, critica letteraria e teoria della traduzione in, intorno e a partire da Bachtin , Milan, Mimesis, 2012, 366pp.
  • Un mondo di segni. L’avere senso e il significare qualcosa , Presentation by Augusto Ponzio, pp. 13–15, Bari, Edizioni Giuseppe Laterza, 2012, 424pp.
  • Tempo, corpo, scrittura. PLAT. Quaderni di pratiche linguistiche e analisi di testi, n. 1/2012. Lecce, Pensa Multimedia, 2012.
  • The Self as a Sign, the World, and the Other. Living Semiotics, Foreword by Augusto Ponzio, xiii–xvi, New Brunswick and London, Transaction Publishers, 2013, 320pp.
  • Em outro lugar e de outro modo. Filosofia da linguagem, crítica literária e teoria da tradução em torno e a partir de Bakhtin, Tradução aos cuidados de Valdemir Miotello, Equipe de tradução Daniela M. Mondardo, Ana Beatriz Dias, Radamés Benevides, Valdemir Miotello, São Carlos - SP. Pedro & João Editores, novembro 2013.
  • Riflessioni sulla teoria del linguaggio e dei segni , Milan-Udine, Mimesis, 2014, 295pp.
  • Semioetica e comunicazione globale, Milan, Mimesis, 391pp.
  • Sign Studies and Semioethics. Communication, Translation and Values , Boston, Berlin, De Gruyter Mouton, 2014. 398pp.
  • Fuhao Jiangjjie: Cong Zongtifuhaoxue Dao Lunlifuhaoxue, Chinese translation by Zhou Jingsong. Chengdu: Sichuan University Press, 2014. 315pp.
  • Nella vita dei segni. Percorsi della semiotica , Milan, Mimesis, 2015. 377pp.
  • Victoria Welby and the Science of Signs. Significs, Semiotics, Philosophy of Language, Foreword, by Frank Nuessel, pp. xi–xviii. New Brunswick and London, Transaction Publishers, 2015, 368pp.
  • 苏珊•彼得里利、奥古斯托•蓬齐，王永祥等译，2015年7月，《打开边界的符号学穿越》南京, Chinese trans. by Yongxiang Wang, Peng Jia & Yu Hongbing, et alii, Nanjing, Yilin Press, 2015.
  • Lineamenti di semiotica e di filosofia del linguaggio. Un contributo all’interpretazione del segno e all’ascolto della parola, , Perugia: Guerra Edizioni, 2016, 315pp.
  • The Global World and Its Manifold Faces. Otherness as the Basis of Communication. , Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2016. 348pp.
  • The European School of Marxist Semiotics: Schaff-Rossi-Land-Bernard-Ponzio-Petrilli, edited by Zhang Bi, Tang Xiaolin, Introduction by S. Petrilli, “A European School of Marxist Semiotics”, Chengdu, Sichuan University Press, 2016. , 282pp.
  • Challenges to Living Together. Transculturalism, Migration, Exploitation , Milan, Mimesis International, Mimesis, 2017, 490pp.
  • Digressioni nella storia. Dal tempo del sogno al tempo della globalizzazione, , Milan, Meltemi Press, 2017, 466pp.
  • Susan Petrilli, Parole e segni. Come sono usati, come parlarne, come vivere meglio con essi, Lecce, Pensa Multimedia, 2018.
  • Signs, Language and Listening. A Semioethic Perspective, Ottawa, Toronto, New York: Legas, 2018.