Published December 30, 2019 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Roland Barthes and Yurii Lotman: Search for Meaning in Film Narrative

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Department of Hebrew & Comparative Literature University of Haifa, Teacher of cinema at Jerusalem Pedagogical Institute "Michlalah Jerusalem College", Israel

Description

The purpose of the research is to carry out a comparative analysis of the concepts of semiotics of cinema by Roland Barthes and Yurii Lotman in the context of their understanding of the nature of film language, since understanding and methods of studying of contemporary digital audiovisual art are the topic of current interest in contemporary art history. The research methodology. The contemporary study of digital audiovisual art, as a rule, takes place within the context of interdisciplinary work, therefore, one of the methodological principles of such work is structural and semiotic approach. Today, this methodological approach to study the audiovisual art is the most developed in the semiotics of cinema, therefore the visual semiotics is viewed through the semiotics of cinema. The scientific novelty of the research. For the first time a comparative analysis of Yurii Lotman’s and Roland Barthes’s semiotics of cinema within the framework of the structural and semiotic approach was carried out. The potential of this methodological approach in the study of audiovisual art has been revealed. Conclusions. The article highlights the special aspects of understanding and application of semiotic concepts by the mentioned authors based on the cinematographic material. Thus, Roland Barthes thought that problems in a semiotic study of the cinema occur when a linguistic approach is applied, and Yurii Lotman believed such study to be completely acceptable. This resulted in a different understanding by these scientists of the nature of film language, its minimal meaningful unit, the role of syntagmatics and paradigmatics in the film narration. Different perceptions of the nature of film language and its components are an important basis for the study of contemporary digital audiovisual arts. The main difficulty of semiotics of cinema is the issue of non discrete iconic (analogue) sign in the study of cinema within the framework of the structural and semiotic approach. This problem can be solved based on the legacy of semiotics of cinema of R. Barthes and Yu. Lotman. Another important characteristic of the structural and semiotic approach is its ability to be combined with other methodological approaches in the interdisciplinary study of digital audiovisual art.

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References

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