Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Fatemeh Jamshidi ¹
• Zahra Abolhassani Chime ²

¹ Ph.D in Linguistics, Payame Noor University

² Associate Professor of Linguistics, SAMT

Abstract

In this paper, a number of films by two Iranian filmmakers as part of the linguistic corpus was analysed based on van Leeuwen's social semiotics. The attempt has been  to answer the questions, "what are the common and different elements of signs of sexism thought in Iranian cinematic texts based on the semiotics of language", and "how have these signs been able to indicate the centrality of sexism and socialism in the Iranian society?" The present study uses a descriptive-analytic method. Having a quantitative as well as a  qualitative study, the paper uses purposeful sampling to examine the modalities in films. Findings of the study showed unexpected results based on van Leeuwen's  model in the number of modalities used by female and male characters in Iranian female director films with a feminist perspective. A similar study was conducted on Iranian male director, and the results showed that the modalities used by male and female characters yielded the full-fledged expectation of Van Leeuwen's pattern with no dominant orientation between the two sexes, and the female and male characters in the film's story naturally used the expected modalities of the pattern used.

Highlights

Introduction: Signs convey different significations in different text. Movies, as very important media, are the vehicle of messages and attitudes thereof. This study tries to discuss the representation of feminist approach by focusing on semantic elements used, regardless of gender dominance. In this study, we have used theoretical framework of van Leeuwen's social semiotics, identifying the gender attitudes of two Iranian (male and female) filmmakers, reveals the sexism ideology in Iranian cinematic texts, through “modality” concepts. As gender identity of people is revealed through activities and actions in communications and via different genres, including cinema, the present study tried to answer the question of “how movie audience define feminine and masculine identity and how gender is represented through semiotic modality?’’. “Is the modality balance of male/female gender as expected objective/subjective in films of the related director?” In addition to answer this question it is attempted to analyze the hidden layers of discourse embedded in signs and symbols

Research method: The present study analyzes the modality framework of six movies using descriptive- analytical method. Quantitative and qualitative study is used for purposeful sampling. Phrases and sentences are analyzed in the speeches of characters to extract the modality features of objectivity/subjectivity used in the conversations of male/female characters. In order to have a standard validity of results three films were selected from each male/female director.

Findings: The study shows that the modality balance used by the Iranian female director in the films, reveals a tendency towards the “feminist attitude”. While the films of female filmmaker shows a clear “objective modality used by women characters, the characters of the male filmmaker, show a complete balance in subjective/objective distribution of modality in genders. So “feminist approach” of female filmmaker is asserted.

Discussion and Conclusion: The present charts represents that out of 3 films of female filmmaker, the female character has a total of 736 modalities using 226 objective modalities (30%) and 91 subjective modalities (12%) versus 107 objective modalities (14%) and 240 subjective modalities (33%) used by the men, which according to Van Leeuwen's model, show quite the opposite expectation. This radical shift in the use of opposing gender modalities is indicative of dominant feminism. The use of linguistic modalities by the opposite sex creates the awareness in the audience that the film is not merely a representation of the realities of life, but a reconstruction of thought, a product of the intended attitude.

Results of similar analytical approach on the films of the Iranian male director showed that the modalities used by the male characters of the story were observed in a total of 1102 modalities with 288 objective aspects (26%) and 243 subjective aspect (22%) versus 195 Objective aspect (18%), and 322 subjective aspect (29%) were used by female characters.  The findings showed no dominant attitude between the two sexes.

Keywords

• Semiotics
• Sexuality
• Modality
• Cinematic film
• Tahmineh Milani
• Asghar Farhadi
• Sociolinguistics