Blockseminar Glossolalia fundamentalism conspiracies current semiotic approaches in the study of religious interpretative styles and narratives

This seminar is centered on some of the most recent issues afforded by the religious studies using semiotic approaches. It will focus on three key topics: religious narratives, interpretative styles and semiotic ideologies. The explanation of the theories will be integrated by case studies, such as the interpretative style Pentecostals deploy when they comment biblical verses to justify or promote the practice of glossolalia, the semiotic ideology of religious fundamentalism, the peculiar narrative structure of religious conspiracy theories. The seminar will be concentrated in two full days: Saturday 30th May and Saturday 27th June 2015. Given its interest in the latest tendencies in the discipline, the students are also asked to take part in the international symposium -Interpreting transcendence: an interdisciplinary dialogue” (München, 18th-19th June) for at least a half day. Moreover, one of the most famous Italian semioticians of religion, Prof. Massimo Leone, will participate as a guest speaker in one of the seminar´s sessions. The enrolled students will be provided with the list of the texts that must be read before the seminar. Each student will be evaluated on the base of the presentation in class of 2 of the assigned readings and a short written exam. Eco Umberto (1992), Interpretation and Overinterpretation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press (selected excerpts). Greimas Algidras Julien (1987), On meaning. Selected writings in semiotic theory, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press (selected excerpts). Keane Webb (2007), Christian Moderns: freedom and fetish in the mission encounter, Berkeley, University of California Press (selected excepts on the concept of semiotic ideology). Leone Massimo (2012), -The semiotics of fundamentalist authoriality”, in International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, vol. 26, pp. 227-239. Yelle, -Reflections on the Semiotic Theory of the Sacrosanctum Concilium”, in Cardita Angelo (ed.) Commentaire à Sacrosanctum Concilium: État de la Question (forthcoming). Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät LMU München SoSe 2015 Dr. phil. Ponzo Jenny phil