ISBN : 9782296125155
SEMIOTICS OF THE NUDE IMAGE IN CINEMA
Alain J.-J. Cohen
Albeit a classical subject and traditional genre amongst so many others in Western art (such as the still life, landscape, portraiture, et al.), the /nude/ stands apart. To a higher degree than all other genres, the /nude/ seems to address the existential and emotional artist/viewer personae, and stirs anew the old-fashioned debates about referentiality in mimesis. For the semioticians of art, along with the ideal viewer, the representation of the /nude/ deals similarly with oppositions and various styles, forms and expressions of the nude in art history. Thus any /nude/ within the sphere of the plastic arts refers to a concatenation of yet other /nude/ artworks. All theories of the /nude/ in art begin with Kenneth Clark's monumental work (Clark 1956) which systematised the question of the /nude/ in art history. It was epoch-making on the subject and inspired legions of art historians. Writing about the history of the female /nude/ in photography, Lewinski (Lewinski 1987) even borrowed his book title from one of Clark's chapters. At the outset, Clark points to the distinction in English between 'nude' and'naked.' The former may designate the representation of the body undressed and transsubstantiated in art, the latter the state of a lacuna, that of being undressed in everyday life. Though it would se...