1 Bookstore spaces Paulius Jevsejevas A. J. Greimas Centre for Semiotics and Literary heory Vilnius University his article presents a semiotic analysis of interior spaces found in several book- stores in Vilnius, Lithuania 1 . he inquiry is exclusively dedicated to spatial manifestation: we will not focus on what is in the bookstore (furniture, decora- tions, equipmnent etc.), but rather on how all these givens are organized there- in. Semiotically speaking, we shall leave aside the surface igurative level and concentrate on the plastic level. his means that material components of the interior are perceived not as casings, surface expressions of deep (e.g., narrative) structures only, but also as givens characterized by their own “depth” of mean- ing, and thus directly participating in the process of signiication 2 . he plastic level of space-object can be described as the level where, instead of “spatial” igures (e.g., “a bookstore” as a location), one encounters the material presence of space via relevant constitutive igures-elements (e.g., walls, bookshelves, ta- bles, books). Such spatial presence manifests itself via the organization of con- stituents that are enveloping and enveloped, dissociating and dissociated etc. Hence, we consider the plastic presence of space to be the totality of relations between it’s material constituents and their features. We are not going to dis- cuss such “igurative” marks as the style of shelves or tables (e.g., “modern” or “antique”), the extent or size of rooms (e.g., “large” or “small”) etc. Instead, we shall attempt to investigate what we would call a general spatial organization. his comprises styles and sizes too, but they are perceived as material features in presence. hus they are not seen as historic or quantitative measurements, but as givens of a direct experience of signiication via material constituents that, as relational endpoints, constitute a totality which is a particular space. 1. It is a revised and translated version of Erdvė knygynuose. In: Baltos lankos, No. 34. Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 2011, p. 5–25; the photos presented herein belong to and are the responsibility of the author. 2. Hence we have attempted to take an approach diferent from the one taken in the classical se- miotic texts on space, such as those by M. Hammad, J. M. Floch, A. Semprini for example, where space is approached via a narrative analysis of what takes place therein or of what is said about it.