Encoded implicits in the woman representation in verb-visual texts

Abstract

Based on the assumption that competent reading demands skills which are related to the socio-discursive bases of the whole text, this article analyzes encoded implicits related to the woman representation in verb-visual texts. The encoded implicit is defined here as a data obtained in the association between text and context, which emerge from the behavioral regularities of the interactants involved in the communicative exchanges, as well as from the characterizing constants of these exchanges, both confirmed by representational discourses. The encoded implicits refer to external data, semiotized through indexes and categorized according to the four conditions of enunciation: of identity, of finality, of purpose and of device (CHARAUDEAU, 2007). Contrasting to internal data, related to language in its essence, external data guides how to say (and how to understand), always in relation to the communicative contract that is established in each exchange. At the extremity of reading, these regularities conventionally inscribed in texts operate as highly encoded interpretative constants. The research will start from the hypothesis that the encoded implicit in verb-visual texts of great social circulation can not only evidence a way of being and looking like a woman, but also promote its perpetuation, or its refutation. The analysis will be mainly based on the Semiolinguistics Theory of Discourse Analysis, in interface with Sociology and Social Psychology. The corpus selected includes texts from the genres meme, comic strip and illustrated tale.