For a semiotics of collective subjectivities

The paper deals with the theme of collective identities, asking if from a semiotic point of view the category of "collective identity" is a useful and legitimate category. The thesis is that this category is useful to semiotics to focus on an "institutional" level of meaning that defines normativity and social belonging and to highlight how the subjects (individual and collective) are always derivatives of a global encyclopedia that precedes them. The theoretical references to which the text relies are Umberto Eco and Vincent Descombes.