Semiotics in Brazil

Monica P. Rector

pp. 47-58

in: Thomas Sebeok, Jean Umiker-Sebeok (eds), The semiotic sphere, Berlin, Springer, 1986

Abstract

Before exploring the specific subject of this chapter, I would like to briefly survey the cultural background, not only of Brazil but of Latin America in general, in which the study of semiotics has emerged. Portuguese and Spanish colonization, imposed upon an indigenous population and then mixed with African Negro blood, gave rise to a Latin American civilization still known throughout the world as underdeveloped and belonging economically to the Third World. Although Brazil has problems quite different from its Spanish American neighbors, the basic sociocultural aspects have been the same, varying only according to the political moment. Over the centuries cultural models from Europe were also imposed upon Latin America, often via the colonizing power which had interpreted the models according to its own needs.