Semiotic Ideology

This dialogue between Webb Keane and Massimo Leone, moderated and with a preface by Constantine V. Nakassis, explores convergences and divergences between continental semiotics and North American linguistic anthropology on the topic of “semiotic ideology.” The discussion ranges over questions of intellectual genealogy, the status of interpretation, the epistemology of analysis, and methodology. It is an edited transcription of the opening session of the “Summer Symposium 2025: Ideologies of Conservation and Transformation,” organized by Massimo Leone at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (Trento, Italy, 23 June 2025).