Hermeneutic identity and denotation-connotation in postmodern artistic practices

Abstract

The essay proposes a theoretical discussion, which starts from the problem of how to rethink aesthetic, hermeneutic and semiotic concepts such as the unity of the work of art, hermeneutic identity and denotation-connotation, from a perspective focused on the process of artistic reception; especially in the case of works that lack a stable structure well differentiated by precise limits. Consequently, the objective is to analyze the operability of these concepts from the perspective of reception, projecting them onto the semiotic specificity of postmodern artistic practices. To this end, in the introduction this non-generic category is briefly defined, and its methodological relevance is argued as opposed to the vague narrowness that characterizes the notion of the use of “visual arts”. The theoretical exposition is divided into two sections. The first deals with the notions of hermeneutic identity and unity of the work of art, based on Gadamer's hermeneutics. In the second section, the problem of denotation and connotation in postmodern artistic practices is analyzed from a semiotic perspective. It is concluded that the hermeneutic identity of a work is produced by the understanding that the receivers make of it, which is much more evident in those artistic practices before which the receiver is forced to articulate, at a purely mental level, his own projection of denoted and connoted meanings, to understand the work.