Artigos

THE LOGOTIC IMAGE: BETWEEN DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION, Jack Brandão

A IMAGEM LOGÓTICA: ENTRE A DENOTAÇÃO E A CONOTAÇÃO

This article, situated within the broader framework of iconofotology — a theory that investigates the modes of presence and signification of the image from the classical domains (material and immaterial) to the emerging regimes (epiplastic and holographic) — proposes a theory of meaning in the image based on the distinction between denotation and connotation, not as separate levels, but as constitutive tensions. Departing from the notion that tropes are not figures of speech but elementary operations of perception and thought, the text develops the Brandão Scale, a dynamic model in which metaphor organizes itself as an ascending movement (analogical condensation) and allegory as a descending movement (narrative unfolding). The scale is exemplified in three domains — verbal, photographic, and cinematic — and articulated with the image’s material and immaterial domains. Finally, the article discusses the concept of the margin (where meaning becomes strained) and of the paramundo (where the image no longer signifies but appears as presence), situating the enigma as the frontier of interpretation.               

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