Ipse disputavit: Ugo Volli e la “scuola” torinese di semiotica

Ugo Volli is an absolute protagonist of the history of Italian semiotics; active since its very foundation, he intercepts, molds, and influences some of the most crucial intellectual trends of the last fifty years. His academic production, in terms of publications, cultural work, and formation of scholars, is prodigious. As regards publications, they span across several formats, from the philosophical monography to the handbook, and constantly intertwine some recurrent themes: interpretive rationality; the singularity of textual forms; the necessity to gain an intelligibility of cultures and their forms of communication without yielding to ideology. As regards the academic work, Volli’s example inspires an ethics of work and an epistemological scrupulousness that are his most important legacy to the multitude of young semioticians that he contributed to train, especially within the “Turin school of semiotics”.