Introduction to a Semiotics of Concealment

Abstract

The collection of articles in this issue of Versus on the semiotics of concealment proposes theoretical reflections and some of their possible applications on the many facets of secret communication. The aim of these texts is to bring together a semiotic methodology, to enunciate the logic of decryption, to highlight some rhetoric of dissimulation and to offer an anthropological overview of secret communication. The resulting material is offered to the scientific community, which often finds itself unarmed in the face of new occurrences of concealment whose traditional patterns are difficult to identify. After a brief account of the current state of research and of the practice of concealment over time, the articles published below are presented.