Biosemiotic Literary Criticism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: The Genesis of Biosemiotic Literary Criticism: How the Future “Presents” the Past

   • W. John Coletta

   Pages 1-43

3. Modeling Environments in Literature and Literary Criticism

   • W. John Coletta

   Pages 45-125

4. Evolutionary Approaches to Biosemiotic Literary Criticism

   • W. John Coletta

   Pages 127-178

5. Communicative Approaches to Biosemiotic Literary Criticism

   • W. John Coletta

   Pages 179-193

6. Hierarchical Approaches to Biosemiotic Literary Criticism

   • W. John Coletta

   Pages 195-204

7. Significational Approaches to Biosemiotic Literary Criticism

   • W. John Coletta

   Pages 205-235

8. Analogical Approaches to Biosemiotic Criticism

   • W. John Coletta

   Pages 237-261

9. Epilogue: The Poet as Scientist; The Scientist as Poet

   • W. John Coletta

   Pages 263-271

This volume is based to a large extent on the understanding of biosemiotic literary criticism as a semiotic-model-making enterprise.  For Jurij Lotman and Thomas A. Sebeok, “nature writing is essentially a model of the relationship between humans and nature” (Timo Maran); biosemiotic literary criticism, itself a form of nature writing and thus itself an ecological-niche-making enterprise, will be considered to be a model of modeling, a model of nature naturing.  Modes and models of analysis drawn from Thomas A. Sebeok and Marcel Danesi’s Forms of Meaning: Modeling Systems Theory and Semiotic Analysis as well as from Timo Maran’s work on “modeling the environment in literature,” Edwina Taborsky’s writing on Peircean semiosis, and, of course, Jesper Hoffmeyer’s formative work in biosemiotics are among the most important organizing elements for this volume. 

• form of nature writing
• model of modeling
• model of nature naturing
• cultural criticism
• nature-text

• Department of English, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Stevens Point, USA

  W. John Coletta

W. John Coletta, Ph.D., professor emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA, is a former Vice President (2009) and President (2010) of the Semiotic Society of America.  He currently sits on the Editorial Board of The American Journal of Semiotics.  Professor Coletta also is a peer-reviewer for the journal entitled ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (the official journal of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) and for the journal Semiotica.  Professor Coletta’s research interests include, besides biosemiotic literary criticism, Peircean semiotics, physiosemiotics, and cognitive semiotics.  He is founder and CEO of INT3RP INC, a company designed to provide semiotic services in several domains, from marketing and branding semiotics to medical semiotics and cognitive semiotics.

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