"Existential semiotics posits an a priori state of signs; it studies the ways in which signs are fixated into objective entities. Tarasti's work is hermeneutic and phenomenological, with its sources in Husserl, Schutz, Merleau-Ponty, Hegel, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Jaspers, and Heidegger. As a member of the Paris School of Semiotics (and following the lead of A. J. Greimas, in particular). Tarasti is seeking less-categorical, less-Cartesian approaches.

He sees semiotics in transition, shift, rupture, and flux, something which is "becoming" rather than "being". His theoretical ideas are illustrated with examples from high culture - painting, music, and literature - as well as from contemporary media and popular culture, including landscapes, gastronomy, novels, Walt Disney films, and post-colonial practices. Signs are examined in their interdisciplinary as well as their intertextual connections in this thoughtful collection of essays."--BOOK JACKET.