Sémiotique de la pudeur

In this paper I firstly propose a brief survey of the initial developments of the studies on the (un)clothed body meant as language, then I dwell on the way in which such perspective may be used to reformulate classical theories about the (in)visibility of the body, after which I characterize the fundamental semiotic mechanism of the language of the (un)clothed body as the projection of a semi-symbolic system of abstract valences, filled with different value oppositions depending on the historical periods and the socio-cultural contexts. I continue by exploring, through a specific semiotic square, the system of values of modesty/immodesty, by offering insights into the processes of naturalization that characterize the arbitrariness of the language of the (un)clothed body, and I conclude with remarks on the distortions that globalization brings about in the perception and attribution of meaning to the clothes of the Other.