“Squaring the Circle” between Greimas and Lotman: A Semiotics of the Firmament

The article explores two geometric and sacred forms — the square and the circle — and the theoretical and methodological vocabulary derived from and enabled by them through two distinct semiotic paradigms, inaugurated by Algirdas J. Greimas and Juri Lotman. Starting from the mystical and mathematical axiom of “squaring the circle”, I reflect on the extent to which the form and vocabulary adopted by a theory determine what worldviews, as well as what forms of analysis are enabled (or interdicted) by it. Utilising Greimas’s and Lotman’s postulates as its case study, the article reflects on the traces of cosmologies, mystical, hermetic, and religious principles contained in the representations adopted by these theories. Furthermore, through the theoretical leaps demonstrated in Greimas’s work De l’imperfection and Lotman’s image of the explosion, the article outlines an argument for what could be the firmament of the Semiotic theory: a holistic approach in which the spherical and plane aspects of phenomena can be integrated into analysis. Beyond the goal of falsifying competing theories, this proposition aims to reflect on the union of forms, striving to weave in connections that permit analyses contemplating both the planar and spherical aspects of our discourses and other meaning–making manifestations.