Table of Contents
Introduction ix
Chapter 1. The Mediatized Trace of the Social World, the Object of Research 1
1.1. There are traces and traces 3
1.1.1. The avatars of a trace of use 4
1.1.2. Metamorphoses of the trace 8
1.1.3. Mediation, mediatization, device 10
1.2. The social trace as a problem: the legacy of the history of the book 12
1.2.1. From book to reading 12
1.2.2. A constellation of categories 15
1.2.3. Structural difficulties 18
1.3. Relevance and efficiency 21
1.3.1. The evasive relevance of the trace 22
1.3.2. An efficient figure of relevance 23
1.3.3. Trace as an interpretative schema 25
Chapter 2. The Schema of the Trace, a Paradoxical Semiotics 31
2.1. The false evidence of the Peircian index 35
2.1.1. The concept of index and semiotic theory 35
2.1.2. The index as a commonplace category 39
2.1.3. The production of indexicality 42
2.1.4. Assessment: a problematic legacy 46
2.2. The trace, appearance and presence of the past in the present 47
2.2.1. The photographic scene, here, now and in the past 50
2.2.2. The theoretical issue of Barthes’ analysis 54
2.3. From the archetype of the trace to its theoretical status 56
2.3.1. Photography as a commonplace archetype 56
2.3.2. From the trace schema to the deployment of devices 60
2.3.3. Photography as a pretext 62
2.4. The mediatized trace, a complex info-communication device 69
2.4.1. Device 71
2.4.2. Text 73
2.4.3. Representation77
2.4.4. Competence 81
2.4.5. Format 84
Chapter 3. The Complex Genesis of the Written Trace 87
3.1. The available inscription 91
3.1.1. Inscription as a framework for thought 92
3.1.2. Grammatology or philosophy in the camera obscura 95
3.1.3. Ichnology as radical logistics 97
3.2. The thickness of the traced-out 103
3.2.1. Actualized presentification in absentia 104
3.2.2. Between inscription device and graphic gesture 106
3.2.3. The traced-out feature, a figure of mediation 108
3.3. It has been… written 114
3.3.1. Signature, a social act between identification and authentication 116
3.3.2. Genetic criticism in the context of the trace/traced-out couple 119
3.4. The written trace as an institutional fact 130
3.4.1. The written trace, a scientific assumption 131
3.4.2. The written trace, a device of social knowledge power 141
3.4.3. The written trace, an educational mediation 145
Chapter 4. The Emerging Trace of the Media Text 151
4.1. The poetics of Mnemosyne: media forms and social memory 154
4.1.1. A mediatized space of thought 157
4.1.2. The trace schema questionned by the atlas of forms 164
4.1.3. The poetics of Mnemosyne at work in media analysis 171
4.2. Indexical reading of media texts 183
4.2.1. The textual witness as a ferment 184
4.2.2. The “index paradigm”, from its commonplace life to its heuristic scope 189
4.2.3. Quotations, from second hand to guestimates 202
4.3. Writing in the future perfect 213
4.3.1. Mnemosyne struggling with Lethe 217
4.3.2. Changes in authority, economy of writings and media genesis of traces 222
4.3.3. Memorial writing in devices 228
Conclusion 231
References 241
Index 259
