Semiotics in Canada

Paul Bouissac

pp. 59-98

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

Abstract

It is generally acknowledged among today's semioticians that Canada has become over the last decade one of the main centers of semiotic research in the world. The existence of a definite interest in the study of signs in several Canadian universities was officially recognized in the early seventies: In 1969, when the International Association for Semiotic Studies was created in Paris, only seventeen countries were represented on its executive committee; two years later, Canada was added to the list at the same time as Israel, Japan and the Netherlands, where in the meantime active centers of semiotic research had emerged. However, this relatively early international recognition preceded by several years the admission of a specifically semiotic group to the learned societies of Canada.