About the Semiotics of Passion

Abstract

With the development in the studies on narrative syntax and the confidence it provides the discourse analyst with, Semiotics accepts the challenge to investigate and describe human emotions. The objective of this work is to discuss, among other things, the concept of passion and the procedures which enable to explain the arousal of the passional effect. Passion appears as a result of the play between the modalities of wanting to be, having to be, knowing to be and being able to be. Each of these modalities can unfold into four modal positions, as it is possible to deny each of the predicates or both at the same time. From the modality of wanting to be, for example, it is possible to get to wanting to be, to not wanting to be, to wanting not to be and to not wanting not to be. Passion is, therefore, the result of modal arrangements. However, the passion analyst cannot restrict his investigations to the modal arrangements, as the same modal sequence can be used to explain different passional effects. To reach a sensible passional description, a comprehensive investigation of the discourse is necessary. It is important to incorporate to the assessment of the modal arrangements an analysis of the actancial relations of the discourse, the narrative programming and the narrative trajectory.