“A Semiotic Analysis of Portrait of a Lady on Fire: Visual Codes, Cultural Meanings, and Mythological Reflections”
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Abstract
Today’s cinema is being reshaped by feminist and queer-oriented aesthetic pursuits that produce alternatives to classical narrative structures and patriarchal gaze regimes. In this new cinematic language where the image functions as a political and cultural means of representation not only on the surface but also in deeper layers of meaning, semiotic analysis emerges as a prominent method of interpretation. In this context, Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019), directed by Céline Sciamma, stands out as a cinematic example that powerfully rewrites the representation of the female gaze, queer love, and mythological references in a contemporary context. In this study, selected scenes from the film were analyzed through a semiotic method. The analysis was based on Roland Barthes’s semiotic model, with additional theoretical depth provided by Jacques Lacan’s mirror stage theory, Laura Mulvey’s critique of the male gaze, Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection, and John Berger’s critiques of female representation. Moreover, the analysis specifically focused on mythological meaning structures through the reinterpretation of the Orpheus and Eurydice narrative and the Demeter cult. The findings reveal that the film brings the female body and queer love into the process of subjectification at the cinematic level, and that it reverses the representational codes of classical art and mythology to create a new visual and political space.
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