Page 68 - Studio International - July August 1975

subject, is additionally of interest as it parataxes, based on the modification of that of the 'same' and the 'other', of
reminds us that the rhetorical structures normally existing relationships between similitude and of difference. However,
we find in such images may also be successive signs. The former class would Durand observes : 'The problem is to
traced in the general manifestations of be sited at the level of the paradigm, the know how to use these two concepts to
our psychic life. Durand defines rhetoric latter at the level of the syntagm. Durand define the supplementary degrees of
`at least summarily, as "the art of fake retains the axes of paradigm and syntagm relation'. Following a discussion of
speech" ' (l'art de la parole feinte). but has recourse to both in the responses to this problem in the work
Rhetoric puts in play two levels of definition of any figure: 'The figure of of Barthes, Greimas, and Lupasco,
language, 'language proper' and 'figured rhetoric being defined as an operation Durand concludes : 'In fact it seems that
language', it being supposed that that which, starting from a simple there may be not one but two basic
which is said in a 'figured' fashion could proposition, modifies certain elements of dichotomies : on the one hand similitude
have been expressed in a simpler, more that proposition, the figures will be and difference, on the other solidarity and
direct, and neutral manner. Certainly, classed along two dimensions : opposition. And the relations between
Durand observes, `. . . this thesis is in — on the one hand, the nature of the these two dichotomies are unstable and
part mythic: strictly speaking the operation. ambiguous. At the pre-oedipien state,
"simple proposition" is not formulated — on the other, the nature of the when there is acquired the distinction
and nothing assures us of its existence'. relation which unites the variable of the self and the other similitude is a
Nevertheless it would in principle be elements. sign of belonging to a single class, of an
possible to identify this simple message, The operation is situated mainly at the extension of the self, and difference is a
either by interviewing a representative level of the syntagm, the relation at sign of exteriority, of separation. With the
sample of readers or by textual analysis, the level of the paradigm. We may say oedipien state the homology is reversed:
and so the conception remains also that the former is linked to the difference of sex signifies complementarity
operationally valid. expression form (signifiers) and the latter and desire, whereas identity of sex entails
In contrast to literature, which since to the content form (signifieds).' identity of object of desire, rivalry, conflict'.
romanticism has valued the 'natural' a) The rhetorical operations Durand decides on more formal
and the 'sincere', advertising has `The multitude of classical figures can definitions based on the concept of the
developed wilful excess and artifice. be reduced to a small number of paradigm : 'Two elements will be said to
Advertising is openly fake and there is no fundamental operations. be "opposed" if they belong to a
question of the public being unable to `An examination of the "figures of paradigm which is limited in its terms
distinguish truth from pretence. The diction" shows that they can be (for example : masculine feminine) —
question therefore arises as to the reason divided into five categories : repetition "other" if they belong to a paradigm
for the conceit : 'if we want to say one of a single sound (rhyme, assonance, which includes other terms — "same" if
thing, why say another ?' Durand finds etc.), addition of a sound (prothesis, they belong to a paradigm consisting of a
some light is shed on this problem by the paragogue), suppression of a sound single term. We pass from the notion of
Freudian concepts of desire and censure. (aphaeresis), substitution of one sound paradigm to the notion of transgression
For example, the correspondent to an for another (dieresis), inversion of order if we acknowledge that two terms of a
agony column who declares 'I married a of two sounds (metathesis). single paradigm must not, normally,
bear', confesses, in the literal sense of `The "figures of construction" are figure in the same proposition: the
her statement, to a transgression of reducible to the same operation, applied transgression is weak for two "other"
social and sexual norms. The sheer to words : repetition of the same word elements (simple coincidence), strong
improbability of such a contestation of (anaphora), addition of a word for two "opposed" elements (meeting
norms, however, dictates that the literal (pleonasm), suppression of a word of two antagonistic elements), very strong
meaning be rejected in favour of some (ellipsis), etc. for two "same" elements (duplication of a
supposed underlying proposition such `Analogous mechanisms, moreover, single element).
as : 'My husband is as beastly as a bear'. are recognized, as Freud has shown, in `According to the elementary
Nevertheless, even though only pretence, the dream, the mot d'esprit, etc: connections which unite their respective
the transgression satisfies a prohibited repetition (Le Mot d'esprit, p.264), elements two propositions may be bound
desire; and, because it is only pretence, suppression (forgetting), substitution by the following relations :
it gives unpunished satisfaction. (slips of the tongue) ... — identity: uniquely "same" relations;
`In short, there are two fundamental — similarity: at least one "same"
operations : relation and "other" relations;
According to Durand, all figures of — addition: one or more elements are — opposition: at least one "opposed"
rhetoric may be analysed as mock added to the proposition (repetition relation;
transgressions of some norm : the norms being included as a special case: — difference: uniquely "other" relations.
of language, morals, society, logic, addition of identical elements). `How will the constituent elements
physical reality, etc. He finds that in the — suppression: one or more elements of of a proposition be defined ? . . . The most
case of the photographic image the rules the proposition are suppressed, and two simple division admits of only two
broken are above all those of physical derived operations : elements : form and content . . . this
reality : 'The rhetoricized image, in its — substitution, analysed as a suppression division is difficult to apply to the
immediate reading, is heir to the followed by an addition: an element advertising image. But it is at the
fantastic, the dream, hallucinations : is suppressed in order to be replaced by foundation of the classical figures. These
Metaphor becomes metamorphosis, another. two elements already suffice to generate
repetition seeing-double, hyperbole — exchange, which includes two reciprocal nine different types of relations between
gigantism, ellipsis, levitation, etc.' substitutions : two elements of the propositions :
On the occasions when a realistic
`justification' is given for the image
`. . . . unreality is not eliminated, but only
displaced'. For example, the suggestion
of a divided personality contained in the
double-image (dédoublement) of the
model in a swimsuit advertisement, is
`justified' by the incongruous presence
of a mirror on a beach.
In a course on rhetoric given at the
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
between 1964-65, Barthes proposed a proposition are permutated.' Paradox and ambiguity are interesting
preliminary division of the figures of b) The relations figures as they present a contamination of
rhetoric into two large classes : the The relations which exist between two content relation by form relation: the
metabolas, based on the substitution of propositions can similarly be classed content relation is at first seen as
one signifier for another, and the according to a fundamental dichotomy: homologous with the form relation, then
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