[Commlist] CFP Versus-Journal of Semiotic Studies: Towards a semiotics of manipulation

Call for Papers
*VERSUS n. 137
*2/2023

*Towards a semiotics of manipulation
*Edited by Alessandra Pozzo and Remo Gramigna

The issue 137 of Versus coordinated by Alessandra Pozzo (CNRS) and Remo 
Gramigna (University of Turin) will be devoted to the theme of 
manipulation. Versus is one of the first international journals of 
semiotics, philosophy and language theory. It was founded in 1971 by 
Umberto Eco who was its editor until his death. The journal is now 
edited by Patrizia Violi.

*State of the art
*The expression “manipulation” reveals some sober but eloquent hints of 
its extension if we consider its main definition as “manual reworking”. 
This fundamental operation inspires the other meanings that globally 
recur to the changing reality of alteration: the adaptation and 
composition of heterogeneous elements, interventions carried out through 
techniques aimed at selecting useful characteristics for a biological 
structure, and, finally, the tendentious reworking of the truth through 
the altered or partial presentation of data and news in order to 
maneuver according to one’s own ends and interests in political and 
moral orientations. Of these extensions of manipulation, the latter 
attracts our attention most recently because of its spread in 
communication strategies with nefarious effects, the signs of which we 
recognize more and more.

* The good manipulation
*However, an examination of the advantageous aspects of manipulation can 
only benefit the study of the phenomenon. Detienne et Vernant (1974) 
identify metis (cunning) as a mental category that provides the 
archetype of 'good manipulation'. Human processing, Vernant explains, 
has an intelligent purpose, in contrast to natural processes that are 
random and unpredictable. Craft activities, for example, involve metis. 
But its scope is immense: it practically concerns the cultural universe 
in all its aspects. The man who uses metis, the cunning intelligence, is 
grappling with the changing reality of becoming, he resorts to 
expedient, to deception, to entrapment, to the most oblique and tortuous 
means to achieve his purpose.

To complete the picture traced around the role of cunning intelligence 
in the reworking of elements of various kinds, Roland Barthes' (1970) 
text on ancient rhetoric suggests some characteristic aspects of 
rhetorical practices that since antiquity have offered themselves as 
constituent elements of the manipulation linked to discourse and 
literature. Rhetoric is presented as: art, technique, teaching, science, 
field of observation, morality, social practice and playful practice. 
These characteristics testify to the spread of the rhetorical fact in a 
large part of the field of knowledge and human activity.

* Ambiguity as a clue
*If we consider manipulation from the point of view of producing or 
receiving a message that has been altered to achieve any objective, we 
are confronted with the illusion that we can clearly convey the whole of 
human experience. In communication practice, we often experience the 
difficulty not only in expressing our thoughts but also in correctly 
interpreting any message, especially when the sender's intentions are 
ambiguous. When confronted with undecidedness regarding the content to 
be associated with an expression, it is possible to imagine that the 
semantic ambiguity is produced by contingent causes or disturbing 
elements. Sometimes, on the other hand, the ambiguity of a message is 
the effect of an intentional communicative strategy that focuses 
preferentially on the connotations that the message itself can evoke in 
the recipient. In other cases, it solicits a range of emotions and 
feelings in the recipient, enacting that linguistic game that makes 
meaning not its denotation but its use (Wittgenstein 1967). In this 
case, what the message denotes is relatively less important than other 
factors that come into play, such as the targeted selection of an 
intended audience, the choice of a style, intonation, keywords, piloted 
de-semantizations or other means of expression that convey a different 
kind of information than denotation.

*Allusions and programmed stimuli
*By soliciting emotional perceptual levels, the aim is sometimes to 
convey a message aimed at provoking unconscious reactions instead of 
offering itself for interpretation and linguistic decoding. The type of 
content involved in this expressive option is often devoid of any real 
potential for conceptualization. Instead, it is based on the 
transmission of confusing, evocative elements, rich in semantic elements 
borrowed from other terms belonging to specially selected semantic 
fields and marked by effective phonic or visual symbolism. The 
advertising message, as well as the political message, is based on this 
type of expressive manipulation that characterizes the conative function 
of language using bland but persuasive means. These modes of expression 
have traditionally been explored by rhetoric as a discipline of elusive, 
deceptive, and practical-discursive language play. If we choose as a 
secondary evaluation criterion the freedom the recipient can exercise 
with regard to the information received, we can identify in this type of 
operation the degree zero of the manipulative message.

*Manipulation strategies
*In more complex manipulative linguistic acts, the processing of 
information obeys a well-defined strategy aimed at concealing part or 
all of the message so that the recipient does not receive the 
information or receives it inaccurately. This is the case with euphemism 
(Prato 2020), in which the operation performed is motivated by 
tendentious purposes. In this case, access to the information being 
denied to the recipient because the source of the data is unavailable, 
the recipient's freedom of decision with respect to a disguised fact is 
null and void.

We are affected by these and other sophisticated manipulative techniques 
as soon as we come into contact with our fellow human beings. Sometimes 
the most innocent communication that we would be willing to bet is free 
of manipulative thoughts, reveals to the careful analysis of those who 
know how to recognize the traces, a refined manipulative project. 
Conspiracy theories, politically correct discourse, rigged enquiries, 
scientific research sponsored and camouflaged for commercial objectives, 
electoral debates, seduction, proselytizing, sexual and power abuses 
concealed for decades in unsuspected fields of social life and various 
other areas of human interaction reveal to rigorous investigation the 
use of sophisticated manipulation to achieve mostly dishonest goals.

*Semiotics of Manipulation
*In order to situate the phenomenon of manipulation in a well-defined 
semiotic framework, the remarks made by Algirdas J. Greimas seem most 
pertinent. Indeed, a semiotics of manipulation is properly traceable in 
the Greimasian theoretical framework. It is important to point out from 
the outset that the concept of manipulation within the Greimas semiotics 
paradigm takes on a meaning quite distinct from those described above, 
and undoubtedly plays a central role in the semiotic theory of 
narrativity, becoming an autonomous semiotic device. Man's action on 
things (making to be) and man's action on his fellow men (making to do) 
is a basic distinction that underlies models of manipulation. 
Manipulation operates within two contractual instances, the persuasive 
doing and the interpretative doing of the manipulating subject and the 
manipulated subject.

In the discursive sphere, manipulation produces and modifies the effects 
of meaning. If truth is nothing other than a sense effect produced 
through discourse, then discursive manipulation consists, according to 
Greimas, in making-believing and making-believing true sense effects. 
The two main forms of manipulation, manipulation according to will and 
manipulation according to power, respectively include such phenomena as 
temptation and seduction on the one hand, and provocation and threat on 
the other. Within the theory of Algirdas Greimas, a semiotics of 
manipulation is already clearly sketched. However, a typology of the 
various forms of manipulation is still open to further investigations 
and researches.

* Themes
*In order to further investigate the means used to implement these kinds 
of communicative processes, a call for papers on the Semiotics of 
Manipulation is proposed with the aim of studying in detail some of 
these strategies in order to develop a semiotic methodology more 
appropriate to the examination of these topics. The expected 
contributions can be both theoretical and applied in nature and may, 
therefore, focus on the different themes indicated in this call for 
papers, and in particular on:

  - Theoretical aspects: developments and interpretations of a 
semiotics of manipulation starting from the theory of Greimas or other 
scholars;
- Contemporary or ancient forms of manipulation;
- Positive manipulation or metis;
- Manipulation, rhetoric and discourse;
- Manipulation and deception;
- Manipulation of information;
- Manipulation in religious traditions;
- Media and manipulation;
- Ethics and manipulation;
- Politics and manipulation.

*Bibliography
*Barthes, R. “L’Ancienne rhétorique”, Communications, 16, “Recherches 
rhétoriques”, 1970, p. 172-223 (tr.it <http://tr.it>. di Paolo Fabbri, 
La retorica antica, Milano, Bompiani, 1972.)
Carofiglio, G., La manomissione delle parole, Milano, Rizzoli, 2010.
Detienne, M. et Vernant J-P., Les Ruses de l’intelligence. La mètis des 
Grecs. Paris, Flammarion, 1974.
Eco, U., Trattato di semiotica generale, Milano, Bompiani, 1975.
Eco, U. I limiti dell’interpretazione, Milano, Bompiani, 1991.
Greimas, Algirdas J., Del senso 2. Narratività modalità passioni. 
Milano, Mondadori, 1984.
Greimas A.J. e Courtès, J., « Manipulation », Sémiotique. Dictionnaire 
raisonné de la théorie du langage (1986 – 1993). (Traduzione italiana a 
cura di Paolo Fabbri, Semiotica. Dizionario ragionato della teoria del 
linguaggio, Milano, Mondadori, 2007).
Jakobson, R., Essais de linguistique générale, Paris, Les Editions de 
Minuit, 1963.
Hjelmslev, L., I fondamenti della teoria del linguaggio, Torino, 
Einaudi, 1961.
Lombardo Vallauri, E., La lingua disonesta. Contenuti impliciti e 
strategie della persuasione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2019.
Madisson M.L.- Wentsel, A., Strategic Conspiracy Narratives. A semiotic 
approach, New York, Routledge, 2021.
Prato, A., “Raccontare i fatti come non sono”. L’uso dell’eufemismo nel 
discorso pubblico contemporaneo, Versus, 1/2020, pp. 139-150.
de Saussure, L. – Schulz, P. Manipulation and Ideologies in the 
Twentieth Century, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2005.
Watzlawick, P., How real is real? Confusion, Disinformation, 
Communication, New York, Random House, 1976.
Wittgenstein, L., Ricerche filosofiche, Torino, Einaudi, 1967.

*Evaluation procedure
*Each proposal will be evaluated by the volume coordinators and the 
journal editors. Articles drafted from accepted proposals will be 
submitted for evaluation by a double blind referee.

*Timetable*
- 30/11/22: submission of a 500-word proposal (with bibliography and 
short bio);
- 20/12/22: notification of acceptance or rejection of the proposal;
- 20/05/23: submission of the article of up to 40 000 characters;
- 20/06/23: notification of referral
- 20/07/23: delivery of the final version of the article
- December 2023: publication of the volume

Proposals should be sent both to the journal ((redazione.vs /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(redazione.vs /at/ gmail.com)>) and to the editors of the issue: 
Alessandra Pozzo ((alessandrapozzo /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(alessandrapozzo /at/ gmail.com)>) and Remo Gramigna 
((remo.gramigna /at/ unito.it) <mailto:(remo.gramigna /at/ unito.it)>)

*Languages accepted
*English, French, Italian
  The journal does not require any article processing charges.

*Rules of style to be followed when writing the article
*English: http://versus.dfc.unibo.it/VS_guidelines_ENG.pdf 
<http://versus.dfc.unibo.it/VS_guidelines_ENG.pdf>
Italian: http://versus.dfc.unibo.it/VS_criteriredazionali.pdf 
<http://versus.dfc.unibo.it/VS_criteriredazionali.pdf>
French: http://versus.dfc.unibo.it/VS_normes_redaction_FR.pdf 
<http://versus.dfc.unibo.it/VS_normes_redaction_FR.pdf>
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