Troll languages. Phenomenologies and semiotics of a distinctive form of Hate Specch
Abstract
This paper proposes a historical and semiotic reconstruction of the Troll phenomenon, which is part of the social semiospheres and represents one of the forms of Hate Speech in the case of its pragmatic and online variants. It is part of Philosophy of language and has reference to the pragmatic studies by Claudia Bianchi, which deal precisely with Hate Speech. Another reference is to Semiotics regarding Massimo Leone’s study dedicated to Troll’ "communication/non-communication". But the most important reference is a very detailed study of the Troll phenomenon by Whitney Phillips, who deals with media and with online disinformation. Our critical review will allow the reader to orient himself through the web troll phenomenology, which presents sometimes banal, other times complex meanings. Troll are a contemporary version of Tricksters and like them love to break the harmonious and recognized Order of Discourse. In the collective imagination, Tricksters have always had an ethical-political task, while the Troll are almost always animated only by a destructive will. They are able to make many proselytes, in view of an unlimited semiosis with unpredictable outcomes, in the name of an authentic Cancel Culture.
References
Anderson, Luvell (2018), Calling, Addressing, and Appropriation, in Sosa, David (2018), Bad Words: Philosophical Perspectives on Slurs, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Attimonelli, Claudia; Susca, Vincenzo (2020), Un oscuro riflettere. Black Mirror e l’aurora digitale, Mimesis, Milano.
Bianchi, Claudia (2021), Hate Speech. Il lato oscuro del linguaggio, Laterza, Roma-Bari.
Caponetto, Laura(2020), Contestazione illocutoria e riduzione al silenzio, in Bianchi, Claudia e Caponetto, Laura (2020), Linguaggio d’odio e autorità, Mimesis, Milano, pp. 105-124.
Coleman, Gabriella (2010a), «Hacker and Troller as Trickster», htpp://gabriellacoleman.org/blog/?p=1902 [ultima consultazione: 15/07/2023].
Coleman, Gabriella (2010b), «Hold & New Net Wars over Free Speech, Freedom & Secrecy: Or How to Understand the Hacker & Lulz Battle against the Church of Scientology», in Vimeo, December 10, 2010, http://vimeo.com/user3514769/videos [ultima consultazione: 15/07/2023].
Dershowitz, Alan (2020), Cancel Culture. The Latest Attack on Free Speech and Due Process, Hot Books, New York.
Eco, Umberto (1962), Diario minimo, Bompiani, Milano 1992.
Foucault, Michel (1976), Folie et déraison. Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique, Gallimard, Paris.
Foucault, Michel (1967), Le parole e le cose, Rizzoli, Milano.
Hyde, Lewis (1988), Trickster Makes This World: How Disruptive Imagination Creates Culture, Canongate, Edinburgh.
Kukla, Quill Rebecca (2014), «Performative Force, Convention, and Discursive Injustice», in Hypatia, 29, 2, pp. 440-457.
Langton Rae (2018), Blocking as Counter-Speech, in Fogal, Daniel, Harris, Daniel, Moss, Matt (2018), New Work on Speech Acts, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 144-164.
Leone, Massimo (2019), «Il linguaggio del trolling. Ingredienti semiotici, cause socioculturali ed effetti pragmatici», in RIFL, 2019, SFL, pp. 147-156.
Lolli, Alessandro (2020), La guerra dei meme. Fenomenologia di uno scherzo infinito, Effequ, Firenze.
Lorusso, Anna Maria (2018), Postverità. Fra reality-tv, social media e storytelling, Laterza, Roma-Bari.
Lorusso, Anna Maria (2021), «Cancellare, tra segni e codici», in Filosofi(e)Semiotiche, 8, 1, pp. 1-7.
Maddalena, Giovanni, Gili, Guido (2018), Chi ha paura della postverità? Effetti collaterali di una parabola culturale, Marietti, Bologna.
Mazzucchelli, Francesco (2016), Flamewar, shitstorm e altre catastrofi. Litigare ai tempi del social web, in Ferraro, Guido, Lorusso, Anna Maria (2016), Nuove forme d'interazione: dal Web al Mobile, Libellula Edizioni, Bari, pp. 117-139.
Milner, Ryan M. (2013), «Hacking the Social: Internet Memes, Identity Antagonism, and the Logic of Lulz», in The Fibreculture Journal, 22, pp. 61-91.
Milner, Ryan M. (2014), «Dialogue is Important, even When It’s Impolite», in The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/roomforddebate/2014/08/19/the-wat-against-online-troll-dialogue-is-important-even-when-its-impolite [ultima consultazione: 15/07/2023].
Palmy, Olson (2011), «The March of the Troll and Activists», in Forbes, September 5, 2011, http://forbes.copm/sites/parmyolson/2011/09/05/march-of-the-troll-and-hacktivists [ultima consultazione: 15/07/2023].
Paolucci, Claudio (2016), Umberto Eco. Tra Ordine ed Avventura, Feltrinelli, Milano.
Phillips, Whitney (2015), This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and mainstream Culture, Cambridge, MIT Press, London.
Phillips, Whitney; Milner M., Ryan (2017), The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online), Polite Press, Cambridge-Malden.
Pistolesi, Elena (2020), «La multiforme vita dei troll: provocatore, flamer o dissidente?», in Quaderni d’Italia, 25, pp. 83-102.
Ponzo, Jenny; Thibault, Mattia; Cassone Idone, Vincenzo (2020), Languagescapes. Ancient and Artificial Languages in Today's Culture, Aracne, Roma.
Quattrociocchi, Walter; Vicini, Antonella (2016), Misinformation. Guida alla società dell’informazione e della credulità, Franco Angeli, Milano.
Quattrociocchi, Walter; Vicini Antonella(2018), Liberi di crederci. Informazione, internet e postverità, Codice edizioni, Torino.
Sauthoff, Taryn (2009), «4chan: The Rude, Raunchy Underbelly of the Internet», in Fox News.com, http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/04/08/4chan-rude-rauncy-underbelly-internet [ultima consultazione: 15/07/2023].
Sedda, Franciscu; Demuru, Paolo (2018), «Social-ismo. Forme dell’espressione politica nell’era del populismo digitale», in Carte semiotiche, Rivista internazionale di Semiotica e di Teoria dell’Immagine, 6, pp. 130-145.
Shifman, Limor (2013), Memes in Digital Culture, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Schwartz, Matthias (2008), «Malwebolence: The Troll among Us», in New York Times, August 8, 2008, htpp://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03troll-t.html [ultima consultazione: 15/07/2023].
Thibault, Mattia (2015), «Do not talk about anonymous, censura, autocensura e anonimato nelle periferie del Web», in Lexia, 21, pp. 237-254.
Thibault, Mattia (2016), «Trolls, hackers, anons: Conspiracy theories in the peripheries of the web», in Lexia, 23, pp. 387-408.
Thibault, Mattia; Marino, Gabriele (2018), «Who Run the World? Cats: Cat Lovers, Cat Memes, and Cat Languages across the Web», in International Journal for the Semiotics of Law-Revue, 31, 3, pp. 473-490.
van Mill David (2018), Freedom of Speech, in Zalta Edward N. (2018), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/freedom-speech/ [ultima consultazione: 15/07/2023].
Works published in RIFL are released under Creative Commons Licence:Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
