La ropa tendida al sol: velos y revelaciones

Abstract

The article starts from the analysis of an image in contemporary mass visual culture — advertising a famous coffee brand — so as to suggest that the semiotics of the veil must develop as the semiotics of a veil. Understanding the meaning of this multifaceted cultural element requires grasping it not only as general device, but also as singular object. Semiotics, which is a science of systems and generalizations, must therefore empower its microanalysis with reference to other toolboxes. The article claims that Gaetan Gatian de Clerambault’s semiology of the veil offers a wealth of insights about the micro–significations of the veil. Such claim is applied to a case study: the micro–analysis, a la maniere de Clerambault, of the “system of the veil” in Ettore Scola’s movie Una giornata particolare [A Special Day] (1977).