In 2011, the main topic of the AISS congress was “Collective Passions” (Sorrento, 14th-16th of October), with several other more specific topics of interest for researchers in semiotics. The AISS congress was a privileged moment to go back to a major issue in the area, 20 years after the publishing of The Semiotics of Passions by Greimas and Fontanille. Between theoretical discussions about the extension of the concept of passion to collectives and contemporary case studies (from politics to art, from new media to tourism), the congress showed the need to rethink the conceptual tools for the description of passions, especially after the incorporation of the notion of “body” and “form of life” in semiotics. The congress was also an opportunity to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Unity of Italy, with an atelier specifically devoted to the taste of Italians.

It is worth noting that Urbino became again a meeting place for semioticians in July, with three international congresses, one of them devoted to the proposed concept of “internaturality”, in dialog with social and anthropological sciences.

2011 has been a rich year in terms of semiotic publications. Besides the numerous acts of congress, two new manuals were published: Introduzione alla semiotica del testo (“Introduction to the semiotics of text”), Laterza (Roma), by Gianfranco Marrone and La semiotica a prova d’esperienza (“Semiotics to the test of experience”), Unicopli (Milano), edited by Pierluigi Basso with the collaboration of the research group Semioticaviva. New semiotic lines appeared at several publishers, for instance a collection at Edizioni Nuova Cultura (Roma) directed by Isabella Pezzini, with Archeologia del contemporaneo. Sociosemiotica degli oggetti quotidiani (“Archeology of contemporary. Socio-semiotics of ordinary objects”), by Dario Mangano, among others; another line is Insegne at Mimesis (Milano) directed by Paolo Fabbri, with translations of some classics (R. Thom, F. Jullien). Among other publications, Bisogno furioso di liberare le parole (“Furious need to free the words”), Le Lettere (Firenze), by Dario Tomasello and Francesca Polacci, about the specific work the Futurism on writing and typography.

It is also worth signaling a new wave of semioticians present in public debates. Alfabeta2, a recently reborn historical journal promoting public debates hosts a regular semiotic Focus (among others “Remix Culture”, “Speaking about Today” and “Collective Passions”). Semioticians start to appear in relevant blog arenas, as is the case of Giovanna Cosenza, who keeps a blog about new media and communication in Il Fatto Quotidiano online, the website of this rather new and successful newspaper.