Some Theoretical Perspectives on Writing. From Ontology to Semiotics

Abstract

This paper contributes to an in-depth reflection on the topic of the ‘roots of writing’ through a review of theories that have given it a definition or scientific framing. The aim of this essay is to demonstrate how different epistemological assumptions or systems of thought correspond to different definitions of the object ‘writing’, entailing different analytical consequences. Therefore, an attempt will be made to briefly illustrate some of the possible philosophical and semiotic perspectives on the subject, trying to relate them to the field of Media Studies. Thus, the work aims to fit within an interdisciplinary study of writing. Indeed, the comparison between different approaches will allow the inter-definition of some cross-disciplinary matters. On the one hand, our relationship with the materiality of the media that enable its realization; on the other, how writing brings out subjectivity as not transcendent and separate from the world, but deeply rooted in it.