Daniela Marcantonio
Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland)
Daniela Marcantonio has obtained her Diploma in Foreign Literatures and Languages - with specialization in German and Russian literatures - in Italy and Germany. She was granted different stipends, which allowed her to visit Russia as well as Germany for longer periods during her education. After obtaining a European grant for the best presented research plan, she moved to Berlin (Germany), where she studied Semiotics at the Technische Universität zu Berlin at the faculty of Communication Sciences and Applied Linguistics. There, she obtained also her PhD in Semiotics with a thesis about the differences in the nonverbal communication using everyday gesture between Germans and Italians. Currently, she is working as a lecturer for Italian and German at the Universitá della Svizzera italiana, Lugano (Switzerland).
Articles of Daniela Marcantonio
Verso una teoria dei gesti
In his work “Gesten. Versuch einer Phänomenologie,” Flusser investigates the concept of gestures. Starting from a first definition of gestures, which explores the “causality” of movements, Flusser then discusses the meaning of the concept “gesture” in the broader context of culture as a symbolic expression. In this essay, we discuss Flusser’s view on gestures by studying them with respect to their function and meaning in communicative processes, both obvious and hidden. From a semiotic point of view, we analyse Flusser’s thoughts on the function and the properties of gestures and provide a definition of “gesture”, which reflects its cultural, symbolic, and significant aspects. Particular emphasis is given to the role of gestures in communicative processes and their imbedding in the cultural environment.