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Semiotics and the Rhetoric of Vision

In his text entitled Mythologies (1987) Roland Barthes provides a useful heuristic device in the form of a chart which diagrams his conception of the sign. In contrast to earlier models proposed by Saussure, Barthes understands signs as being constituted by a process, which is constantly shifting and inherently unstable and one that conditions meanings rather than simply and predictably reflecting them. He discusses the sign as operating through the interrelated processes of denotation and connotation. Denotation takes place at what Barthes terms the "level of language" it is the literal meaning presented. Connotation takes place through inference, and shades meanings in subtle and powerful ways. Barthes argues that the process of making meaning begins with denotation, then moves quickly into connotation where cultural myth and historical knowledges are accessed, fortified, extended or, on occasion, even challenged. For Barthes, myths are not folk tales or archetypal narratives, rather they are ideologies that have emerged through the - always contemporary - construction of history. He famously illustrates the process through an analysis of the cover of Paris Match, a french magazine. Select each component of Barthes' diagram of the sign (below) for an exploration of its implications and an experimentation within its logics.

>> Shortcut to exercise exploring the way in which
language conditions the meaning of images.