Sémiotique du sentiment d'appartenance

The article proposes a phenomenological and semiotic theoretical framework for the intelligibility of the meaning of belonging, one of the most fundamental concepts in present-day cultures and societies. After defining belonging as a spatial enunciation that brings about 1) the frontiers of a space of belonging ; 2) the consequent opposition between an environment of belonging and one of non-belonging; and 3) the relation between, on the one hand, the subject of enunciation and, on the other hand, the opposition /environment of belonging/ versus /environment of non-belonging/, the article articulates a typology of “figures of crossing”, in which belonging is manifested through the narrative dialectics between placement and dis-placement. In the theoretical framework of tensive phenomenology and semiotics, four macro-regimes of belonging are singled out: “sedentary estrangement”, “nomadic belonging”, “nomadic estrangement”, and “sedentary belonging”. Moreover, four semantic paths dynamically representing the transition between these regimes are identified: “exile/invasion”, “cosmopolitanism/curiosity”, “acclimation/tolerance”, and “alienation/suspicion”. In the conclusion, the theoretical framework developed by the article is proposed as instrument for the analysis of the “rhetorics of belonging” in present-day cultures and societies.