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  • © 2019

The Semiotics of Love

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  • Written by one of the world's foremost authorities on Semiotics and the meanings of Popular Culture
  • The first treatment of romance ever envisioned by a semiotician, all the while maintaining an accessible writing approach friendly to those outside of the field
  • Provides a perspective of romance that complements psychology and anthropology
  • Connects love signs with cultural events and discourses

Part of the book series: Semiotics and Popular Culture (SEMPC)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
  2. Conceptualizing Love

    • Marcel Danesi
    Pages 1-29
  3. The Body in Love

    • Marcel Danesi
    Pages 31-55
  4. The Language of Love

    • Marcel Danesi
    Pages 57-82
  5. Love Stories

    • Marcel Danesi
    Pages 83-106
  6. Love Images

    • Marcel Danesi
    Pages 107-127
  7. Love Symbols and Rituals

    • Marcel Danesi
    Pages 129-147
  8. Love and Marriage

    • Marcel Danesi
    Pages 149-168
  9. Back Matter

    Pages 169-178

About this book

The Semiotics of Love brings together work on early symbolism, literary practices, and contemporary communication on the theme of romance and the idea of love to forge an understanding of the semiotic-cultural side of romance. Moving beyond psychological and neuroscientific scholarly analyses of love, Marcel Danesi works to interrogate the cultural constructions of love across societies. This book analyzes romantic love from the general perspective of semiotics—that is, from its more generic interpretive angle, rather than its more technical one. The specific analytical lens used is based on the notion that we convert our feeling structures into sign structures (words, symbols) and sign-based constructions (texts, rituals, etc.), which then allow us to reflect upon something cognitively, rather than just experience it physically and emotionally.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Marcel Danesi

About the author

Marcel Danesi is Professor of Semiotics and Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is renowned for his work in several areas of semiotic study, including pop culture and metaphor. He has been a guest on several broadcast outlets, including National Public Radio. Among his major recent publications are The History of the Kiss!: The Birth of Popular Culture (Palgrave, 2013); Murder in Plain English, with Michael Arntfield (2017); and Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics, 3rd edition (Palgrave, 2018). His work has been featured in the New York Times, Toronto Star, and Psychology Today, among other print publications. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Semiotica, the leading journal in semiotics.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 24.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access