Landscape semiotics (original) (raw)

We provide an overview of different approaches to the semiotic study of landscapes both in the field of semiotics proper and in landscape studies in general. We describe different approaches to the semiotic processes in landscapes from the semiological tradition in which landscape has been seen as analogous to a text with its language, to more naturalised and phenomenological approaches, including landscape as chronotope, as well as the ecosemiotic view of landscapes that goes beyond anthropocentric definitions. Special attention is paid to the potential of the Tartu–Moscow school’s cultural semiotics to analyse landscapes and the possibilities held by a dynamic, dialogic and holistic landscape definition for the development of ecosemiotics.