Introduction

Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, born in 1946 in Verviers (Belgium), received his Masters (1967) and his Doctorate (1971) in Romance Philology. He teaches language studies at the University of Liège, focusing on rhetoric and semiology. He also teaches French-language literature (particularly Belgian and Québecois). His professional activities focus on two areas: linguistics/semiotics and French-speaking cultures.

In the first area, he made his mark in the late 1960s by revitalizing the field of rhetoric as a member of the interdisciplinary team known as the µ Group (pronounced "mu Group"). More recently, he has helped to steer semiotics in a social, cognitivist direction. His writings on semiotics and rhetoric have been translated into 15 or more languages.

In the second field, he has modernized the study of the arts in Belgium by casting them in a social and institutional light, an approach that can be readily transferred to the other French-speaking cultures he has studied (such as Quebec's) and by establishing inter-university research programs. He founded and chairs Belgium's Centre d’Études des Lettres Francophone.

Jean-Marie Klinkenberg is president of the International Association for Visual Semiotics.