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La Cifra Impar. Revista de estudios de audiovisuales

RESEARCH PAPERS

No. 1 (2022):

Semiotics and iconography in Adam Curtis’s conspirative documentary

DOI
https://doi.org/10.58180/lci.1.2022.21
Submitted
June 6, 2022
Published
2022-08-04

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the semiotic aspects of Adam Curtis' work through the symbolism of its iconography as well as its narrative structures in relation to the concept of 'conspiracy'. Curtis' work is characterized by its tendency to make argumentative proposals based on opposing events, between which exists no direct causal link. Because of this tendency, the director has been sometimes labeled as a conspiracy theorist by ideological groups who do not share his view. The goal of this paper is, therefore, to show how Curtis has managed to re-shape the formal and argumentative mechanisms of conspiracy narratives, not to prove himself as the carrier of an hypothetical absolute hidden truth, but to subvert institutional versions of history and, in this way, highlight their arbitrariness.

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