Major Semiotic Methodological Approaches in the Analysis of Static Images: A Descriptive and Critical Review

Abstract

In the contemporary era, the semiotic approach is considered one of the most important mechanisms of cultural criticism for images in general, and static images in particular. This approach has extricated the image from the complexity impasse and enabled it to transcend the functional categories of images. Semiotics approaches the image from the perspective of meaning rather than from the angles of sensation, pleasure, and aesthetics as various philosophical and psychological perceptions have previously done. To illustrate this, our article will focus on the major semiotic methodological approaches in the analysis of static images by researchers Roman Jakobson, Roland Barthes, Martin Joly, Laurent Gervereau, and Erwin Panofsky.