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VISUAL SEMIOTICS OF FEMININE FASHION: A CONCISE ANALYSIS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 1 (19). P. 173-195

In the paper, the structure, composition and properties of feminine vestimentary fashion as a visual symbolic system, are studied. It is found out that the system of female fashion cannot be deduced as a simple derivative of the costume design either in synchronic or diachronic (historical) aspect. The methodology used in the work includes techniques and methods of semiotic analysis proposed by R. Barthes, Prince N. Trubetzkoy, L. Hjelmslev, A. Martinet and Ch. Peirce. It is shewn that throughout the history the semiotic potential of fashion has always been unevenly distributed between the two genders. The man has always considered clothing exclusively as an object of use and necessity, while on the basis of the costume design, the woman was able to create a complex visual semiotic system of fashion completely separate and unrelated to the costume design directly. The real clothing, conditioned by its goals and purposes, does not mean anything. Women’s fashion, by contrast, means and represents, encodes and transposes the meanings and denotes and connotes the signifiers. Feminine fashion simulates symbolic and social reality and builds a new world of the imaginary, drawing horizons of appearances and expanding the semantic foundations of the phænomenology of clothing. In general, female fashion system is as complex as the real clothes are simple. Even in the extreme case of nudity, female nakedness transforms to a semiotic system. An approach to the classification of visual signs of women’s fashion is proposed, according to which these signs with respect to mobility can be a) static, b) dynamic and c) static-dynamic. According to the message of meaning aimed at the recipient, the signs can be divided into: i) semantic signs, ii) signs-ciphers, which, in turn, are divided into ii, α) purely cryptographic signs and ii, β) simulacra, and iii) signs-imperatives. It is revealed that the semiotic chains built by women’s fashion can be of four levels: 0) the level of expediency, 1) main denotative level, 2) level of symbolic ritual tradition (level of initial connotation of meanings), 3) level of fashion mythology (an aggregate of many levels of subsequent connotation of meanings).

Keywords: fashion, feminine fashion, vestimentary code, visual vestimentary sign, semiotics of fashion

SACRAL VISUAL SYMBOLS IN ISAAC NEWTON’S HISTORIOGRAPHY // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2019. Issue 3 (21). P. 135-155

The purpose of this work is 1) to analyse the features of the content and style of historiographical works of the English philosopher, scientist and theologian Isaac Newton, connected with the sacred symbolism; and 2) to find out the place and role of sacred symbols in the civilisation theory of the thinker. This study of Sir Isaac Newton’s understanding of Biblical symbolism is based on the analysis of his unpublished manuscripts from the Library of King’s College (Cambridge), Library of New College (Oxford), National Library of Israel (Jerusalem), Babson Library Collection in California. The principles and techniques of hermeneutic, historical philosophical, linguistic and structural analysis were used to achieve the task of the paper. As a result of our research, it is found out that in forming his civilisation theory Newton used a complex of prisca sapientia (ancient wisdom) ideas. According to Newton, physicochemical and cosmological ideas reflecting the unity and completeness of the material world and expressed in the notions of the Universe, Galaxy, Solar system, harmony of the aggregate states of matter and their mutual transformation, can serve as the basis of our understanding the ways of the ancient civilisation development. It is revealed that, according to Newton, when the ancient Greeks and later Romans learned the knowledge of prisca sapientia from the Ægyptians, they perceived and re-interpreted the Old Testament biblical visual symbols. Thus, the Prytanæum architectural, cosmological and cultural-sacred tradition arose, that was based on the architectural hieroglyphs of the structure of the Universe. In his historiographical manuscripts, Newton proves the advantage of the Jewish religious and cultural tradition and its chronological precedence over the antique and ancient Eastern ones. It is assumed that complex and obscure style as well as rather rough philological stylistics of the Newtonian historiographical works may be caused by the two reasons. First, Newton wrote his historiographical compositions in a private manner, preferring never to publish them, therefore the texts of these works represent merely drafts, sketches, rather than finished scientific papers. Second, Newton made an attempt (conscious or unconscious) to copy the inspired style of many ancient representatives of the prisca sapientia tradition, e. g., Old Testament prophets, Ægyptian priests, Chaldean oracles (sages), Persian Magi, and Indian Brahmans.

Keywords: Newton, symbol, symbolism, sacral sign, Biblical symbolism, hermeneutics, semiotics, architectural symbol, architectural hieroglyph, Christian non-canonical sermon, literary sermon, Christian homiletics, religious scientific homiletics, historiography