Memory and identity: a semiotic journey of the self in True Detective
Abstract
This article posits a semiotic interpretation of the relation between memory and identity through the analysis of a scene from the second season of True Detective (HBO, 2015). Our aim is to understand how the process of remembering – in this case, triggered by the presence of a stain on the ceiling of the protagonist’s bedroom – reveals the journey of the self, in the context of contemporary audiovisual production, in which identity narratives gained prominence. To that end, we rely on Ransdell’s (1997) exegesis of the Peircean iconic sign, and on Andacht and Michel’s (2005) work on the semiotic self. By means of a fictional example, we attempt to demonstrate that identity construed as a self-interpretive process is based on semiosis, and that the act of narrating one’s life, which can only be done through memories, generates the present manifestation of its signs.
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