Laura Gherlone's research addresses the interdisciplinary thought of Juri Lotman ─ with a focus on his late theoretical production ─ in relation to the spatial turn, the theory of cultural affects and the Latin American reflection on decoloniality, considering the migratory issue as a field of exploration. She is the author of numerous international publications.
Affectivization of borders in the digital sphere: Migration-Related Online Narratives in ArgentinaThe topic of borders is an active research area in Lotmanian studies. Starting from this scholarship, the article aims to open up fresh possibilities for interpretation of Lotman's spatial-driven theory, making it dialogue with the cultural affect studies and the current communication-focused research on the digital sphere. This theoretical framework underpins the case study covered in the essay, that is, the linguistic analysis of online narratives on migration during the COVID-19 pandemica prolonged situation of high-intensity relational affect in which emotions played a pivotal (agentive) role in the perception of a widespread and multidimensional crisis. Argentina is the cultural milieu of socio-semiotic scrutiny, in which distant reading and close reading cross-pollinate each other.