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Textual analysis aims to understand and pull apart the meaning of a text and the way in which it was constructed to direct the reader towards a particular meaning.

I decided to go through the below still from Beyonce’s recent Formation music video, as an example of textual analysis, which has been a focus of this week’s classes.

In reading different texts, there are two levels of meaning: denotative and connotative.

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denotes: sinking police car

connotes: ‘sinking’ the police – calling them out for their acts of violence

denotes: water

connotes: transparency

denotes: flooding

connotes: peril, natural disaster

denotes: red, white & blue

connotes: America, the state of America as a collective whole

denotes: woman lying on police car – lifeless

connotes: death sprawl – police brutality

denotes: old, traditional clothing and hair

connotes: another era (one in which racism was alive and well)

denotes: crooked lights

connotes: broken lights, broken police, dysfunctional, crooked

denotes: new orleans police sign

connotes: black, low socio-economic community, new orleans, which has a complex history and present relationship with racism and police brutality

denotes: sinking police vehicle

connotes: institutions, particularly the police, have failed new orleans

denotes: flooding

connotes: hurricane Katrina; a period in which New Orleans incurred an unprecedented death toll due to slow aid response times; a situation widely attributed to racism – overwhelmingly it was the black community that was left after evacuations had ended.

denotes: Beyonce on top of car

connotes: symbolic power in who is on top of the car – also, anyone can be dragged down/impacted, by the police/state if they are a black individual, no matter who they are

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Through a breakdown of the individual elements of just a single frame in this video, the amount that semiotics plays in the construction of meaning becomes clear, as every aspect of the video, every prop, colour, placement, has been carefully planned out to reflect the overall message of the video; one protesting racism, the police brutality that comes with it, and the stereotypes and deep-seated prejudices about black culture that allow it.