Abstract
There is a tendency to reduce erotica to sexual desire or lust according to the conventional perception of Eros . By liberating Eros from mere eroticism , the relation between erotica and semiotica is revealed. As the generator-of-desire, Eros seduces us to engage in a learning process awakening a sense of wholeness. This process has remarkable features of reciprocity and infinity, where love manifests in the desire to create a microcosmic whole and to seek its expansion into an evolving macrocosmic whole. Drawing on Bataille’s eroticism, Baudrillard’s seduction, Gebser’s aperspectival consciousness, and Peirce’s evolutionary love, a case for the role of love in edusemiotics as an integrative conceptual framework is proposed. The chapter revisits the relation between erotica, beauty, imagination , design, and intentionality. Teaching and learning the love of wholeness is the raison d’être of edusemiotics.
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Notes
- 1.
Connecting design with lovemaking has been one of the most effective ways to introduce my graduate students at Antioch University in Seattle to the design approach, initiating and leading social/cultural change. Design as lovemaking utilizes the notion of seduction to trigger the desire to serve others and persevere through the paradoxical aspects of design thinking and acting.
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Seif, F.Y. (2017). Erotica and Semiotica: What’s Love Got to Do with Edusemiotics?. In: Semetsky, I. (eds) Edusemiotics – A Handbook. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1495-6_19
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