Imágenes y palabras en la lucha por imposición de sentidos: la imagen como generadora de relatos

Abstract

It is well known the trajectory proposed by Philippe Dubois of Peirce’s second trichotomy –icon, index and symbol– to analyze the relationship that have historically been established between photography and “reality”: the image as an icon (“mirror” of the world); the image as a symbol (subjected to conventions); the image as an index (“trace” of reality). It is evident that this sequence does not propose a progression but, rather, a possible reading of the visual sign. As a result, icon, index, and symbol, far from referring to a type, constitute ways in which these signs function or are read. However, an inescapable fact is that, from the point of view of reception, in comparison with spoken o written language, images propose a less mediated relationship with a “real” referent and therefore –this is our hypothesis– possess greater efficiency in the fight for the imposition of meanings. Thus, if discourses in general “build reality”, visual representations assume within these a particular efficiency so far as they confront us with the strength of evidence (the exact copy or footprint of the real).