Il discorso animale

Abstract

For semiotics, the question of the talking animal is evidence but, in other ways, it is something unthought of, a theme that still needs to be worked on and discussed in view of new models of reflection and analysis. It is an evidence because talking animals are the norm in fairy tales, in legends, myths, fiction and so on: all material that, adequately analysed, has led to the theory of narrativity, where a non-human actor can play even very complex attitudinal roles. Even very complex ones. However, this is also something unthought of because, after all, narrative grammar, in its interplay between actors and actants, has in some way humanised animals, situating itself within an epistemology that we could define, we shall see, animist. What is needed, in short, is a clear epistemological positioning so as to avoid a naive assumption of the notions of animality and humanity.