Future. A Time of History

Abstract

When studying how human beings can make something that is absent present through signs, semioticians have mainly focused on the way human beings make the past present. In this monographic section of the journal, we offer a reflection on ways of making the future present. Our approach to temporality is relational and evenemential: to study semiotic forms in the representation of the future means to investigate its modes of existence and its relationship with past and present events. We will introduce the topic by illustrating, first, the evenemential and relational approach to the study of temporality; second, we will outline a semiotic approach to the analysis of the future as a time of history, drawing on the epistemological reflections of Charles Sanders Peirce and Jurij Lotman; third, we will offer an example and a general reflection on regimes of temporality and historicity in texts. We will conclude by giving an overview of the contributions we have the honour to include in this monographic section.