(in Polish) Non-alphabetic Writing Systems and Graphic Communication: A Theoretical Approach 1500-SI-NAWSAGCATAI
The seminar "Non-alphabetic Writing Systems and Graphic Communication: A Theoretical Approach" concentrates on the most recent theories of writing and the semiotic and cognitive operating principles of non-alphabetic writing systems and, in general, graphic communication systems from all over the world. It is dedicated to the PhD students who work on ancient writing systems such as Mesoamerican or Egyptian, contemporary non-alphabetic writing such as Chinese or Japanese, scripts more debatable in nature such as Naxi or Kuna, graphic and/or visual communication systems from native America (Andean and Amazonian regions), Africa, and from the contemporary globalized world. The seminar focuses on acquiring methodological tools elaborated by visual semiotics, tropological semiotics, and cognitive linguistics, as well as by codicology, grammatology, iconology, visual poetics and grammar, ethnomathematics, and others, with the main goal to elaborate eclectic methodology and theory useful for the object of study.
The main subjects to be treated are:
- (Basics of) Cognitive Linguistics for the study of systems of writing and graphic communication
- (Basics of) Cognitive Neuroscience for the study of systems of writing and graphic communication, literacy and numeracy
- Semiology of visual narratives (comics, Mesoamerican codices, among others)
- Multimodality in graphic communication systems
- Terminology in studies of systems of writing and graphic communication
- Mediascapes in the postcolonial approach
The choice of subjects will be widened according to the subjects of participants’ doctoral dissertations.
Please note that the aforementioned topics will not be presented in a way proper for monographic courses. The idea of the seminar is that the participants will take part in an in-depth discussion of a selected topic after a broad reading. Discussion meetings on the readings are held interchangeably with meetings dedicated to presenting the progress of the participants' dissertations (the exact schedule will be determined during the initial classes).
Type of course
Course coordinators
Assessment criteria
A very active participation of the doctoral student in class and in discussions based on previous diligent reading of texts (50% of the grade)
Preparation of one article OR (any) chapter of the PhD dissertation OR participation with a paper related to the topic of the seminar in an international symposium (50% of the final grade). If the above paper is handed in in September, it will be accepted for corrective credit
permissible total number of excused and unexcused absences: 6
allowable number of unexcused absences: 3
Bibliography
- Ungerer, Friedrich & Hans-Jörg Schmid (2006) An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics. Routledge (selected fragments)
- Graeber, David & David Wengrow (2022) The Dawn of Everything. A New History of Humanity. Penguin Books Ltd. (UK)
- Evans, Vyvyan & Melanie Green (2006) Cognitive Linguistics. An Introduction. Edinburgh University Press (selected fragments)
- Cohen, Matt & Jeffrey Glover, eds. (2014) Colonial Mediascapes. Sensory Worlds of the Early Americas. Part I: “Beyond Textual Media.” University of Nebraska Press.
- McLuhan, Marshall (1964) Understanding Media. The Extensions of Man. A Signet Book ed. (selected fragments)
- McLuhan, Marshall (1962) The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. University of Toronto Press (selected fragments)
- Reading proposed by the seminar participants according to their necessities
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: