Novel Perspectives on Communication Practices in Antiquity: Towards a Historical Social-Semiotic Approach

"This volume contains selected and thoroughly revised versions of papers presented at the international conference "Novel Perspectives on Communication Practices in Antiquity: Towards a Historical Socio-Semiotic Approach." Held at the cultural center Het Pand in Ghent from October 3 to 5, 2019"

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Documentary texts are vital to our understanding of many aspects of the ancient world, such as its administration, education, and economy. The value of these texts goes even further however: being autographs, they directly testify to ancient communication practices, a field of study which so far has remained underexplored. In this volume, specialists in the field engage with a broad range documentary sources. They discuss not only how various modes of communication, such as language, handwriting, and lay-out, are employed in specific contexts of writing, but also how these different modes are interrelated. Building on insights from contemporary social semiotic theory, the volume makes a case for the establishment of historical social semiotics as a discipline. Contributors are: Yasmine Amory, Klaas Bentein, Sarah Béthume, Eleonora Conti, Mark Depauw, Jean-Luc Fournet, Antonella Ghignoli, Geert de Mol, Nicola Reggiani, Marco Stroppa, Sofía Torallas Tovar, Jimmy Wolfe"--