The Literary Text as Diagram: The Heterogenesis of Sense in Lotman, Batt and Valéry

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the literary text’s nature as a diagrammatic device: not as instrument of transmission of meaning, but as heterogenetic space, that draws thought in action. The text is conceived as a living organism, shaped by the co-creative action of the reader in the process of interpretation of the work. Starting with the theorizations of Jurij Lotman about the construction of meaning –  in which, within the secondary language system of the text, the sign acquires an iconic nature and the significant plays an active role in the generation of meaning – it becomes evident that the text opens up to a dynamic and multi-coded structure, in which different semiotic levels intertwine (phonetic, graphic, syntactic, rhetorical). In this context, according to Noelle Batt, the text takes shape as a heterogenetic space, a field of relations between virtuality and actuality. It’s precisely this dynamic and stratified nature that makes it possible to see the path of moving thought. Finally, the analysis of Valéry’s L’homme et la coquille reveals a paradigmatic example of literary heterogenesis, in which the stratification of linguistic registers and reflections of various disciplinary natures reflect the creative dynamism of both the act of writing and that of reading.