Semiotic Landscapes

Jaworski, A. & Thurlow, C. (eds). (2010). Semiotic Landscapes: Language, Image, Space. London & New York: Continuum.

Semiotic Landscapes is an exciting addition to the study of linguistic landscapes. It looks at how landscape generates meaning and combines three major areas of scholarly interest each concerned with central dimensions of contemporary life: language and visual discourse, spatial practices, and also the changes bought about by global capitalism and ever increasing mediatization. The editors look at: the textual/discursive construction of place; the use of space as a semiotic resource; the extent to which these processes are shaped by wider economic and political re-orderings of post-industrial or advanced capitalism; changing patterns of human mobility and transnational flows of ideas and images. The collection demonstrates the way written discourse interacts with all other discursive modalities: visual images, nonverbal communication, architecture and the built environment. From the red light districts of Switzerland to the transgressive public art of graffiti, all landscape can be seen to generate meaning. Semiotic Landscapes looks at how and why, and places this meaning generation in an interdisciplinary and thoroughly modern cross-section of global trends.