ABSTRACT
Thomas A. Sebeok developed the boundaries of semiotics in the direction of “biosemiotics,” “zoosemiotics,” and eventually “global semiotics,” delineating an approach to the sign and to self that accounted for their biological foundations. In light of his “pragmaticism,” Charles S. Peirce described the self as a set of actions, practices, and habits. Reflection on the self and on the sign are closely interrelated in both Victoria Welby’s and Peirce’s work. Both illustrate the importance of grounding a theory of self in a theory of sign. The problem of the self is also addressed recurrently in Welby’s early correspondence and was to become a focal point in her research and writings during the last decade of her lifetime. The self is delineated in the continuous flux of interpretive-translative processes whose development is beaten out at the rhythm of succession, superimposition, multiplication, and cohabitation among multiple selves according to the logic of otherness.
