Page 69 - Studio International - July August 1975

on closer inspection this reading is as syntagm, product as paradigm. In watches form a subsidiary figure of
inverted. Fig. 5b we find, conversely, product as paronomasia within the larger structure,
c) Table of classification of figures syntagm, user as paradigm; the product and so on.
All of the figures of rhetoric can be being the only constant element in a Our recognition of a good
classified according to the two temporal continuum (indicated by a advertising photograph has little to do
dimensions defined above. We indicate gradation of light-level). with its efficacy in the service of a
here a particular figure as an example at At first glance, Fig. 6 may seem a case product (who would know how to
each position in the table' : of identity (A.I in the table) of which measure that ?). It is rather the
recognition of that organized richness of
signification, combined with a
foregrounding of the device, which may
lead us to make the attribution
`aesthetic' in respect of any particular
message whatsoever, whether it be visual
or verbal and regardless of its
institutional context. It is therefore not
to be supposed that rhetorical analysis is
suited only to advertising images. We
could equally well have applied it as a
means of sorting and refining our initial
observations concerning the Diane
Arbus pictures.
Durand concludes his article with a
purely notational logical formalization of
his description of rhetoric. He is
confident of its pertinence to practice:
`The myth of "inspiration", of "the
idea", reigns in the creation of
advertising at the present time. In
reality however the most original ideas,
the most audacious advertisements,
appear as transpositions of rhetorical
figures which have been indexed over the
VII repetition is one of the classical figures course of numerous centuries. This is
Durand goes on to discuss the CI have seen, I have seen true tears explained in that rhetoric is in sum a
membership of each of the 25 classes flow'). The visual repetition in Fig. 6 repertory of the various ways in which
of figures identified in the above however is subjected to an operation we can be "original". It is probable then
inventory, with reference to advertising by the caption which transforms it into that the creative process could be
campaigns in France. On the basis of a a figure of ambiguity (A.5 in the table). enriched and made easier if the creators
small sample of images gathered almost In antanaclasis, one of the classical would take account consciously of a
at random from the pages of English figures of ambiguity, the same word is system which they use intuitively'
magazines we may give here some limited repeated with a different signification (my italics).
indication of the mechanics of the (`In thy youth learn some craft, that in The close relationship between
analogy (see overleaf): thy old age thou mayest get thy living language phenomena and the
In classical rhetoric the figures of without craft')." The advertisement unconscious was first observed by
similarity (A.2 in Durand's table) are shown in Fig. 6 is an example of a Freud : 'The formation of substitutions
divided between those based on a frequently used antanaclasis in which a and contaminations in speech mistakes
similarity of form (eg rhyme, series of visually identical signifiers are is . . . . . the beginning of that work of
paronomasia) and those based on a given differing signifieds in the captions. condensation which we find taking a
similarity of content (eg, pleonasm, In Epitrochasm, one of the figures of most active part in the construction of
simile). In the simile, one thing is said accumulation (A.3 in the table), there the dream'." Most recently, interest in
to be like another thing even though the occurs a hurried summary of points. Freud's texts has been revived by
forms of the things compared are The primary signifieds of accumulation Jacques Lacan and the Freudian
actually different (`O, my love is like a are those of abundance and disorder. School of Paris. Lacan finds in the
red, red rose'). In Figs. 4a and 4b we are As in the visual example of this figure mechanisms described by Freud a
told, respectively and visually : 'These given in Fig. 7a, objects are presented in rhetoric of the unconscious. The
cigarettes are like (taste as "smooth" as) confusion rather than judiciously unconscious is structured in its
cream', and, 'These cigarettes are like arranged. As Durand observes: entirety like a language, thus . . . . . if the
(are as wholesome as) bread baked from . . . . relations of identity and opposition symptom is a metaphor, it is not a
natural ingredients'. are not only absent, they are denied. metaphor to say so, no more than to say
Durand defines a figure of similarity Expressing profusion, accumulation is, that man's desire is a metonymy. For the
. . . an ensemble of elements of which
as then, a romantic figure'. Even the symptom is a metaphor whether one
some are carriers of similitude and others apparent absence of order is therefore likes it or not, as desire is a metonymy
of difference'. This more abstract accommodated within the order of for all that men mock the idea'. . .
formulation permits the identification of rhetoric. The functional union which Freud
a great variety of photographic types We may acknowledge that Fig. 7b is also establishes between the manifest data of a
based on constructions of similarity. For an example of accumulation. As this is dream and its latent content is likened by
example, in Fig. 5a the model is the same our final example, however, we should Lacan to the union of signifier and
in each picture, as is the context and perhaps pause to note that signified. As Jean-Marie Benoist observes,
general configuration of the pose accumulation is not the only figure `Dreams can thus be compared to
(elements carrying similitude). The present. There is antithesis, weak in cryptic texts, or palimpsests, whose
element /garment/ however is a carrier of expression but emotive enough in polysemy must be deciphered by the
difference, signalling the purpose of the content (the opposition masculine/ psychoanalyst. And the romantic
series : the exploration of a section of the feminine). There is also ellipsis: the conception of the Unconscious as a kind
garment paradigm. Implication of implied proximity of the unseen of deep layer or mysterious cave, where
temporal succession is suppressed, the individuals whose tastes, habits and occult forces are at work, can be
syntagm being effectively 'frozen' at one social position are written in their dismissed entirely'. Obviously, a
of its points to allow the fullest possessions and their choice of certain conception of the nature of the
paradigmatic play. breakfast. We could continue, albeit with symbol, the result of a popularization and
In Fig. 5a we are presented with user some reduction in credibility: the corruption of Freud's work, and which

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