Defines the philosophical field of existential semiotics. Existential semiotics involves a priori state of signs and their fixation into objective entities. There is a hermeneutic and phenomenological aspect to the work. Its sources are in Husserl, Schutz, Merleau-Ponty, Hegel, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Jaspers, and Heidegger.

ContentsPart One: Philosophical ReflectionsOn the Paths of Existential SemioticsSigns and TranscendenceEndo-/Exogenic Signs, Fields, and WorldsUnderstanding, Misunderstandings, and Self-UnderstandingSigns of Anxiety; or the Problem of Semiotic SubjectPart Two: In the Forest of SymbolsFrom Aesthetics to EthicsThe "Structural" and "Existential" Styles in 20th Century ArtsOn the Authenticity and Inauthenticity of ArtPart Three: The Social and Cultural Field of SignsOn Post-colonial SemiosisSemiotics of LandscapesPoetics of PlaceWalt Disney and Americanness"...and you find the right one"Senses, Values—and Media

Tarasti's explanations, analyses and comments of sign processes in art and everyday life might seem amazing at first sight. He is not afraid of heavily speculative and heavily metaphysical thinking. . . . [he] wants to show us that there can be more involved in sign processes than pure conventionality, maybe even something that is beyond the grasp of the Semiotician.34 2004