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Actants, Actors, and Combat Units. The problem of conflict revisited: a semio-cultural viewpoint

in Versus n. 114, From Analysis to Theory: Afterthoughts on the Semiotics of Culture, pp.39-60

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the question of conflict and war from a semiotic-cultural point of view. Starting from a tentative definition of war and conflict as “border” of a culture (even if in a paradoxical way), we want to discuss the specific links between war, conflict and narrative models. The second point proposed is to figure out some ideas about the “polemogenic” mechanisms inside cultures, and conflictual processes, such as the escalades, again from a semiotical point of view. Starting from the work of a semiotician like Lotman, and crossing his thought with some concepts from social system theories, we discuss some hypothesis about “symmetry” and “asymmetry” inside cultures, and the related questions about growing up of conflictual identities, as perceived by the actors. This last point is deepened taking some examples from recent wars (such as civil and ethnic wars in former Yugoslavia) and examining relative discousive devices.