Multisemiosis and religious discourse: semiotic analysis of the sculptural text of Our Lady Aparecida

Abstract

The present article is a qualitative-interpretative work and, in order to identify the use of multisemioses in contemporary social practices, following different theoretical descriptions (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2001; ELIAS, 2016; MACAGNO; PINTO, 2021), if architect on the theoretical structures of discursive semiotic studies, more specifically, on the aspect of plastic semiotics that considers the analysis of visual semiosis. In order to achieve these purposes, the specific objective of the present work is, therefore, to apprehend, through analysis, the possible effects of meanings of the religious image of Our Lady Aparecida, present, as a sculptural text, in the sacred space of the National Sanctuary of Aparecida (SP), thus associated as an analytical work of a multimodal religious text, visual, beyond the verbal form. The justification of the present corpus is given for two main reasons: a) the sociocultural and religious role of the saint considered as Patroness of Brazil; b) the necessity and originality of the present analysis, since there were no productions from the semiotics scope about a certain sculptural representation. For this, our analytical methodology is developed through the theoretical-methodological process of the categories of the visual expression plane of plastic semiotics (PIETROFORTE 2007, 2018), categories that mine the effects of meanings through the colors, shapes and positions of the object. In this way, we hope to be able to expand the studies in the field of semiotics and religious discourse, so that it is possible to understand, through the evidence of the sculptural text, that the image highlights, possible relationships of meaning between divinity and humanity.