Page 71 - Studio International - July August 1975

still prevails in some writing on 4Walter Benjamin, 'A Short History of terminology changes, 'sign', for example,
photography, cannot be sustained. It was Photography', Screen, spring 1972, p.6. becoming 'recognition seme' (see
Freud himself who remarked that, in the Diane Arbus, Aperture monograph, 1972. `Introduction to a semiotics of iconic signs',
6 Stephen Heath, The Nouveau Roman, VS, 2, 1972).
dream, sometimes a cigar is merely a Elek, 1972, p.189. 48 Cinemantics, p.6.
cigar. 'Roland Barthes, Mythologies, Paladin, 49 Umberto Eco, 'Introduction to a semiotics
1973, p.109. of iconic signs', VS, 2, 1972, p.5.
8 Ibid, p. 50inemantics, pp.6-7.
VIII Ibid, p. 51 Prosodic features are those variations in
The remarks by Brecht with which " Jean-Marie Benoist, 'The End of speech, such as timbre, pitch, duration, which
we began impute an intrinsic Structuralism', 20th Century Studies 3, allow us to pronounce the same words with
inadequacy to photography. Benjamin May 1970, p.31. a different emphasis or sense. In some
agreed : 'At this point,' he commented, "Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology, languages certain prosodic features are
`the caption must step in, thereby Jonathan Cape, 1967, p.93. clearly conventionalized and commutable to
creating a photography which "Roland Barthes, 'Situation du linguiste', the point at which they must be considered
literalizes the relationships of life and La Quinzaine litteraire, 15 May 1966. to belong to langue. In Chinese for example
43 Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology,
without which photographic Jonathan Cape, 1967, p.12. a certain phonemic form will take on two
totally separate senses according to whether
construction would remain stuck in the " Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General it is uttered in a high or low tone. In regard
approximate.' And he continues : Linguistics, Fontana, 1974, p.16. to European languages, on the other hand,
' "The illiterate of the future", it has 15 Elements, pp.10-11. there is still some dispute amongst linguists
been said, "will not be the man who 16 Course, pp.13-14. as to whether certain such 'marginal'
cannot read the alphabet, but the one 17 Ibid, p.14. features belong to langue or to parole.
who cannot take a photograph". But 18 Ibid, pp. 108-109. 52 Christian Metz, Language and Cinema,
must we not also count as illiterate the 19 Oswald Ducrot and Izvetan Todorov, Mouton, 1974, pp.276-277.
photographer who cannot read his own Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences du 53 Christian Metz, Film Language, Oxford
pictures ?'. 66 langage, Editions du Seuil, 1972, p.132. University Press, 1974, p.26.
Benjamin's emphasis is clear. He asks : 20 Elements, p.38. 54v Kuleshov, Art of the Cinema,
21 Jacques Derrida, De La Grammatologie,
`Will not the caption become the most Les Editions de Minuit, 1967, p.21. selections in Screen, winter 1971-2,
pp.115-116.
important part of the shot ?'. Certainly the 22 Ibid, pp.70-71. 55Tzvetan Todorov, 'Language and
fundamental importance of the verbal 23 Jonathan Culler, Structuralist Poetics, Literature', in The Structuralist
text in its ubiquitous associations with Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975, p. 132. Controversy, ed. Macksey and Donato,
photography is not to be denied. If 24 Course, p.123. John Hopkins Press, 1972, p.127.
there has been no reference to it here, 25 Ibid, p.123. " Ibid, p.129.
however, it is simply because our topic 26 John Lyons, Introduction to Theoretical 57 Tzvetan Todorov, 'Structural Analysis of
has been precisely that reading of the Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Narrative', Novel III, autumn 1969, p.73.
1968, pp.73-74. See here and following for
image which was not available to discussion of 'potentiality of occurrence'. 58 Roland Barthes, 'The Rhetoric of the
Image', Working Papers in Cultural Studies,
Benjamin but which we may now 27 Roman Jakobsen and Morris Halle, spring 1971, p.48.
contemplate. In the absence of such Fundamentals of Language, Mouton, 1971, 59 Jean Louis Swiners, Problèmes de
reading, photography is indeed, p.92. photo-journalisme contemporain',
captioned or not, 'stuck in the 28 Course, p.113. Techniques graphiques, 1965, Nos. 57,58, and
approximate', or worse. 29 Louis Hjelmslev, Prolegomena to a 59.
Without in any way reducing the Theory of Language, University of 6° Ibid, No.59, p.290.
importance of the verbal, but on the Wisconsin, 1969, p.112ff. 61 Jacques Durand, Rhetorique et image
30
Dictionnaire, p.41
contrary by emphasizing it, work in 31 Louis Hjelmslev, Language: An publicitaire', Communications 15,1970,
semiology and semiotics has developed introduction, University of Wisconsin, 1970, PP.70-95.
far-reaching implications for art theory p.136. 62 Antanaclasis differs from the previously
mentioned syllepsis in that its constituent
and thus carries the potential of 32 Stephen Heath, Vertige du Déplacement, propositions are quite distinct, whereas in
transforming art practice. It not only Fayard, 1974, p.65. syllepsis they 'overlap'.
demands a radical overhaul of the 33 cf. Roland Barthes, Mythologies, Paladin, 63 Sigmund Freud, The Psychopathology
thinking behind such terms as 1973, pp.120-121, for remarks on neologism. of Everyday Life, Macmillan, 1914.
`figurative' and 'abstract', but even more 34 Roland Barthes, Systeme de la Mode, 61 Jacques Lacan, The Insistence of the
profoundly it has irrevocably Editions du Seuil, 1967, p.7. Letter in the Unconscious', The
35 Umberto Eco, La Structure Absente,
undermined the foundations of the Mercure de France, 1972, p.m Structuralists from Marx to Levi-Strauss,
distinction between 'visual' and 36 Roland Barthes, 'Rhetoric of the Image', ed. De George and De George, Doubleday,
'non-visual' communication. Simply Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972, p.323.
65 Jean-Marie Benoist, 'The End of
because a message is, in substance visual, University of Birmingham, spring 1971, Structuralism', 20th Century Studies 3,
it does not follow that all of its codes are P.45. May 1970, P.42.
visual. Visual and non-visual codes Ibid, p.41. 66 Walter Benjamin, 'A Short History of
interpenetrate each other in very 38 The signs of natural language are Photography', Screen, spring 1972, p.25.
extensive and complex ways. Metz has described by Saussure as 'unmotivated' or 67 Christian Metz, Language and Cinema,
`arbitrary'. The relationship between a
put it well : 'In truth, the notion of a word and its referent is entirely Mouton, 1974, p.35.
"visual", in the totalitarian and conventional, whereas the relationship in a
monolithic sense that it has taken on in `motivated' code is only partially Note: Figs. 2b and 2c are reduced in width
certain recent discussions, is a fantasy or conventional. Here there is a greater or from the original.
an ideology, and the image (at least in lesser degree of resemblance to the referent,
this sense) is something which does not as in the schematized car silhouettes in the
exist'. 67 `No Overtaking' road sign. Barthes sometimes
uses the terms 'digital' and 'analogical' in
place, respectively, of arbitrary and
motivated.
39 Ibid, p.46
40 cf. La Structure Absente,
41 Elements, p.66.
42 Umberto Eco, 'Articulations of Cinematic
Code', Cinemantics, I January, 1970.
1 Based on lectures given at the Polytechnic 43 Course, p.13.
of Central London and the Slade School of 44 Ibid, p.66.
Fine Art, 1 974. 45 Irwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology,
2 Walter Benjamin, 'A Short History of Harper and Row, p.3.
Photography', Screen, spring 1972, p.24. 46Cinemantics, p.5.
3 Walter Benjamin, 'The work of art in the 47 Eco's terminology here is derived from
age of mechanical reproduction,' Hjelmslev via Prieto (see La Structure
Illuminations, Fontana, 1973, p.228. Absente, p.206ff.). In his later work the
51