The Semiotics of Che Guevara: Affective Gateways (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics)

Alberto Korda's famous photograph of Che Guevara titled the "Guerrillero Heroico" has been reproduced, modified and remixed countless times since it was taken on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba. This book looks again at this well-known mass-produced image to explore how an image can take on cultural force in diverse parts of the globe and legitimate varying positions and mass action in unexpected global political contexts. Analytically, the book develops a comparative analysis of how images become attached to a range of meanings that are absolutely inseparable from their contexts of use. Addressing the need for a fluid and responsive approach to the study of visual meaning-making, this book relies on multiple methodologies such as semiotics, research-creation, multimodal discourse analysis, ethnography and phenomenology and shows how each method has something to offer toward the understanding of the social and cultural work of images in our globally oriented cultures. Review Maria Cambre's book revises semiotics. From the pierced and wounded Sign emerges the heroic, resurrected and repaired. This book's radical semiotic gaze replaces older approaches to sign reading in order to revolutionize seeing itself. (Chela Sandoval, Associate Professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA 2014-09-03) "Alberto Korda's famous photograph of Che Guevara titled the 'Guerrillero Heroico' has been reproduced, modified and remixed countless times since it was taken on March 5, 1960, in Havana, Cuba. This book looks again at this well-known mass-produced image to explore how an image can take on cultural force in diverse parts of the globe and legitimate varying positions and mass action in unexpected global political contexts. Analytically, the book develops a comparative analysis of how images become attached to a range of meanings that are absolutely inseparable from their contexts of use. Addressing the need for a fluid and responsive approach to the study of visual meaning-making, this book relies on multiple methodologies such as semiotics, research-creation, multimodal discourse analysis, ethnography and phenomenology and shows how each method has something to offer toward the understanding of the social and cultural work of images in our globally oriented cultures."-- Provided by publisher FC Half Title Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations 1. Introduction 2. Stealing the Image? Copyright and the Failed Branding of Che Guevara’s Image 3. Virtual Resurrections: Che Guevara’s Image as Place of Hope 4. Revolution Within: Youth and the Face of Che Guevara in Venezuela 5. Beyond Semiotics: The Agency of Che Guevara’s Image in East Timor 6. Alchemy : Indigenous and Artistic Methods for Understanding the Work of Che’s Image 7. About Face 8. The Unfinished Business of the Guerrillero Heroico: Queering Che Notes Bibliography Index