A SEMIOTIC TYPOLOGY OF DOCUMENTARY FILM ACCORDING TO PEIRCE’S SYSTEM OF 10 CLASSES OF SIGNS

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55877/cc.vol27.526

Keywords:

semiotics, Peirce, documentary film, newsreels, communication in the Soviet Union

Abstract

Semiotic analysis of films is usually reduced to a trichotomy of signs invented by Charles S. Peirce in 1885: icon, index, and symbol. However, later he proposed two more trichotomies and systematised them into 10 classes of signs. In this article, a typology of documentary films based on this system is developed. The empirical material of the study is the newsreels produced by the Riga film studio in 1946– 1990. As television took over the information function in early 1960s, documentary filmmakers engaged in bold experimenting with the means of cinematic expression. The experiments resulted in a stylistic diversity of the audiovisual information genre that can be systematised analytically with the help of Peircean semiotics.

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Author Biography

  • Dr. sc. inf. Sergei Kruk, Riga Stradiņš University, Latvia

    Sergei Kruk is a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Riga Stradiņš University. His main research interests are semiotics of communication, particularly – visual communication. He has published books and articles dedicated to semiotics of outdoor sculpture, photography, and ballet. In his most recent publications, Kruk has analysed Latvian photojournalism in the period from 1950 to 2020.

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Published

25.06.2025

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Vol. 27 (2025): Culture Crossroads

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