Μάρτυς. Alcune note preliminari per una semiotica del martirio

Abstract: This paper aims to point out some crucial features for the semiotic definition of the figure of the martyr. Each definition of this kind must deal with a documentary and doctrinal tradition that often appears uncertain or inadequate. Through the study of discourses on martyrdom we will verify if it is possible to identify a definition of the martyr as an instance independent from discursive configurations that are often apologetic, ideological, or simply pietistic. A perspective that differs from the purely linguistic one seems to emerge from the so–called semiotics of the natural world, in which the dimension of gesturality still plays a limited role, but displays interesting possibilities. This paper tries therefore to isolate the pure praxical dimension of the martyr. The reflection focuses on two phenomena described in the Acta Martyrum and intends to provide some prolegomena for a possible semiotics of martyrdom.