Synopses & Reviews
This radical reevaluation of one of the foundational figures of semiotics presents Peirce as the theorist of the “machinery of talk” rather than of the mind and its contents. The book is a genealogy of Peirces writings on signs that seeks to account for the changes displayed across forty years of his work. The authors comprehensive knowledge of Peirces work brings an incisive understanding to his notoriously elaborate and complex theory of signs, at the same time challenging some standard readings in Peirce scholarship. Freadman introduces the postulate of “genre” in order to argue that the transformation of materials from one genre in and by the objectives of another can account for the modifications in sign theory observable through the course of Peirces career. The Machinery of Talk engages on a theoretical level with general issues in semiotics, taking Peirces writings as a case study through which to investigate the adequacy of a theory of signs to account for the way “talk” works. It finds that “the sign” is inadequate without the accompanying postulate of “genre.”
Synopsis
This radical re-evaluation of some standard debates surrounding Peirce's theory of signs presents new interpretations of his work by studying his writings genealogically. Freadman uses the term genre to access Peirce's work, and expands this original theoretical approach by proposing that "genre" interacts with "sign" and that this interaction is central to the study of the semiotic in general.
About the Author
Anne Freadman is Associate Professor in the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland.