The Letter as a Visual Sign of Art: Analysis of Its Discursive Functions

Abstract

This research has had the purpose of examining the parallel relationship between the plastic production of the text in the artistic work and some interpretive processes involved in its semiotic approach, in order to clarify the impact and functions of written discourse in the visual arts. An investigation of a descriptive and documentary nature has been proposed, whose instruments of inquiry were: 1) the investigation of theoretical perspectives around the semiotics of the text, and 2) a selection and classification of artistic pieces in which the text operates, semiotically, significantly. An analysis of the selected works was carried out based on the theory of language functions proposed by Roman Jakobson. The research has allowed theoretical crossings that validate the typographic analysis as an alternative of formal study of art manifestations, contributing to a typification that transcends the traditional historical or aesthetic categories and allows to approach new forms of appreciation and meaning of the text (whether written, recorded, painted, drawn, printed, typed) in relation to its materiality and expressive contribution to the artistic field. Despite the direct involvement between art and typography, the theoretical materials that document this relationship are scarce. This work has made it possible to visualize the expressive possibilities of the text based on the identification of its functions in the art. The extrapolation of the Jakobson model —which starts from orality and traditional written discourse— towards the plastic language has favored the understanding of the discursive complexity in the two levels of the representation of the text in visual arts: 1) its linguistic dimension, and 2) its graphic-expressive nature; what has allowed to constitute a theoretical proposal that can be contrasted with the artistic production.