BOOKS BY ALBERTO ABRUZZESE

Beyond the complicated etymology of the word transgression, some clues allow to analyse the meaning of transgressions in the media. The historical clue, to understand the unconventional role of the communication media on the social structures; the sociological clue, which puts in evidence the processes of materialization of the contemporary media born in the nineteenth-century metropolis; the social-anthropological clue, which catches forms of transgression from the daily life in addition to the role of the historical avant-gardes; the social-semiotic and social-linguistic clues, where structuralism and narratology put in evidence the generative ability of transgression. Up to the political clue. These are the bases to bring to mind the structural aspect of transgression, and to ponder over the meaning of those unconventional procedures that fed from the bottom, by subjects, instincts and languages that the official cultures tend to restrain are able to change the world.

By this essay the author wants to share in the debate on the present state of the studies about communication. They need a compelling turning point, regarding the review of the analysis instrument and the theoretical categories related to what communication is in post-modernity. By this way, a very critical judgement is actually expressed towards communicationists, whose great limit is not to really focus on how the media communication is changing, to borrow from other branches of learning concepts and useful remarks grounded to the categories of the modern time. The studies on communication are above all accused not to take into account the changes in the modern subjectivity, a matter that other branches of learning has made responsible for; in the same way the anthropological-cultural transformation that has occurred in the consumption set in the mass society imagery that is promoted by the generalist media, has not been taken into the right consideration. Basically the language of communication itself must be reviewed, in order to make up for that lack of communication culture expressed by those who think to talk about it as experts, but are at last only bearers and further spreaders of common places.