Ole Michael Jensen

Red River Valley: Geographical Studies in the Landscape of Language

A handful of plain maps are presented, each one representing certain features of the landscape of language. Through the use of conventional mapping techniques, what is invisible becomes visible. A morphological map shows a plain of speech hemmed in by two mountain ranges of silence and cut through by a silent stream of perfect representation. A topological map depicts this landscape in terms of the three fields originally defined by Charles Sander Peirce as iconic, indexical, and symbolic. An anthropological map explains how the landscape is being settled by Homo significator, who first lives in Ferdinand Tonnicss realm of Gcmeinschaft and then moves across the river into the realm of Gescllschaft. Finally a map of the genesis of landscape is drawn based on principles borrowed from Rene Girards theory of mimetic desire.