Microanalisi del velo. Verso una semiotica del drappeggio

The article starts from the analysis of an image in contemporary mass visual culture — advertising a famous coffee brand — so as to suggest that the semiotics of the veil must develop as the semiotics of a veil. Understanding the meaning of this multifaceted cultural element requires grasping it not only as general device, but also as singular object. Semiotics, which is a science of systems and generalizations, must therefore empower its microanalysis with reference to other toolboxes. The article claims that Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault’s semiology of the veil offers a wealth of insights about the micro-significations of the veil. Such claim is applied to a case study: the micro-analysis, à la manière de Clérambault, of the “system of the veil” in Ettore Scola’s movie Una giornata particolare [A Special Day] (1977).