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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.