Scarpe abbandonate: sul senso dei resti

Starting from the semiotic analysis of abandoned objects, and in particular shoes, the article revolves around different methods of attributing meaning to what is left, either intentionally or unintentionally, ‘out of context’. Abandoned shoes therefore becomes the epitome of meaning that is excerpted from its original frame of utterance and placed in a new, unforeseeable semantic texture, vulnerable to the gaze, the reading, the interpretation, but also the misinterpretation of the passerby. The ethical implications of this issue are evoked through the analysis of a chain of philosophical-aesthetic reflections concerning the boots that Vincent Van Gogh ‘abandoned’ in one of his paintings. The interpretations of Heidegger, Shapiro, and Derrida are compared in order to answer one of the fundamental questions of semiotics and hermeneutics: how should one interpret a fragment of meaning bereft of its author?