French Literature Reviews - 2026
Semiotic Regimes of Temporality
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Semiotic Regimes of Temporality: The Broken Arrow of Time
Edited volume (24 French, European, North and South American contributors)
Edited by Denis Bertrand and Jacques Fontanille
Paris, Presses Universitaires de France
Collection "Formes sémiotiques"
2006
ISBN: 2-13-055907-7 / EAN 13: 9782130559078
488 pages
32.00 €
Back cover:
How does the discursive subject shape their representations of time? Between the ontological aporia of temporality and the sensible experience of lived reality, how do they unleash the modeling and manipulations that allow them to make time their own? The ambition of this book is to explore cultural creativity regarding temporal figures and regimes.
It broadly adopts the perspective of a confrontation between representations of time, beginning by refuting the most common one, as typically conveyed in traditional or popularized presentations of linguistic time. The "arrow of time," a representation born from daily experience, offers only one aspect of that experience. Projected onto other experiences and other uses, it can only foster misunderstanding and maintain a genuine temporal "blindness." The analyses presented here from a semiotic perspective—firmly grounded in yet distinct from the philosophy and linguistics of time—explore the discursive varieties of temporality to contribute to overcoming this temporal myopia.
They are grouped into three sections: the localization of instances and signifying relations that generate temporality, the examination of cultural dynamics that transform temporal aporia, and the analysis of discursive modulations of time that condense forms of life. These analyses draw upon a vast corpus of texts revealing the unexpected forms of a temporality that is both irreducible and infinitely malleable: they engage with foundational myths (from Babylonian myths to biblical narratives and the Grail) and literary works (Balzac, Zola, Proust, Céline, Jaccottet, Yourcenar), as well as theoretical texts (Saussure, Benveniste, Ricœur) and the grammar of tenses (the imperfect), musical works (Messiaen) and historiography, popular arts (folktales, songs), social practices (marketing), and passionate experiences (the time of vengeance). This immense material is gathered around a single core inquiry and approached within a unified theoretical framework: that of the semiotics of discourse, which finds here a new terrain of research and fresh analytical perspectives dedicated to a deeper understanding of meaning.
Contents:
Introduction by Denis Bertrand and Jacques Fontanille
I — The Quest for the Instances of Time, Between Expression and Content:
- Instances of Time in General, Texts by Michel Arrivé, Jean-François Bordron, Blanche-Noëlle Grunig
- Particular Instances, Texts by Georges Kleiber, Anne Simon, Thierry Charnay, Jean-Jacques Vicensini
II — Transformative Dynamics of Temporal Aporia, from the Mythical to the Social:
- Entrances and Exits from Time, Texts by Isabelle Klock-Fontanille, Herman Parret, Jacques Escande, Marcello Castellana, Louis Panier
- Passages and Transitions, Texts by Ivan Darrault, Nicolas Couegnas, Adeline Wrona
- Mediations and Third-Times, Texts by Donald Maddox, Claude Calame
III — Temporal Modulations and Forms of Life:
- Variations on the Instant and the Moment, Texts by Jacques Fontanille, Inna Merkoulova, Denis Bertrand, Luis Tatit, and Ivan Lopes
- Variations on the Past and the Future, Texts by Didier Tsala, Juan Alonso Aldama
The study of temporality has long occupied a central place in the humanities, bridging the gap between philosophical inquiries into the nature of time and linguistic analyses of tense and aspect. Within the tradition of French semiotics, scholars have sought to move beyond the linear, unidirectional model of time to examine how meaning is generated through diverse discursive practices. By focusing on the semiotics of discourse, this collection situates itself within a broader intellectual movement that treats time as a construct shaped by cultural, literary, and social frameworks.
The volume Semiotic Regimes of Temporality: The Broken Arrow of Time examines how temporal figures are manifested across a wide range of media, including foundational myths, literary texts by authors such as Proust and Balzac, and social practices. The analyses are grouped into three sections: the localization of instances and signifying relations, the examination of cultural dynamics that transform temporal aporia, and the analysis of discursive modulations of time. Readers interested in the intersection of linguistics, narrative theory, and the philosophy of time may find these diverse analytical perspectives relevant.