WATCHING THE IMAGES OF AFFECTIVE PROPAGANDA IN THE MOVIE OF THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) WITH PEIRCE SEMIOTICS

Abstract

Cinema is also used as a propaganda tool along with its art and entertainment dimension. Films can contain propaganda as well as a specific policy. The aim of this study is to subject the affective propaganda images in Sergey Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin movie to semiotic analysis. According to Gilles Deleuze, C.S. Peirce is the most advanced philosopher in the systematic classification of images. Peirce defines the sign as a relation between the object and the interpreter. Deleuze states that the sign is a special image that represents an image type. Although Peirce's concepts are used in Deleuze's proposed classification of images and signs, the semiotic framework of Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 books is Bergsonian rather than Peirceian. Deleuze states that no film will stick to one type of image. According to him, there are basically three types of movement-image: perception-image, action-image and affect-image. Movies are organized with these three types of images. Indicators related to these images can be listed under two main headings as "Composition indicators" and "Genetic indicators". The compositional indicators of the affect-image are “Line icon” (Qualification) and “Feature icon” (Power), while its genetic indicators are “Quality-sign” (Qualisign or Potisign), “Discontinuity” and “Meaninglessness” (Espace quelconque). The type of image expressed as "affective propaganda images" in the study are affect-images used by Eisenstein for propaganda purposes to place the consciousness of the revolution. According to Deleuze, “the plan is the movement-image”. The affect-image is the close-up, the close-up is the face. There is no close-up of the face, the face itself is a close-up. The face can be not only the human face, but also the "face" of a different object. Within the scope of the study, the affect-images in the movie Battleship Potemkin and the relations between the signs related to them are investigated.