A Semiotic Inquiry on the Other, Othering, and Otherization Processes

Abstract

There are many communication or language systems around us to convey messages or produce meaning. Every day, on our way to work, school, or some other destination, we encounter various elements such as billboards, public transportation station designs, traffic lights, and signs. Each of these elements, which are subsystems of a larger system, are signs that inform us about a new product or announcements in any field, tell us when to cross the street, and indicate changes in the neighborhood and the direction we should take. From the perspective of semiotics, which studies the processes of signification, cinema is also a kind of a communication system or an art language that features its own signs. Just as everyday signs have a place in our perception and the world of meaning, cinema also reflects differences by presenting contrasts with its own signs and can influence the interpretation of the other. In the film Dairy Philosopher (Mandıra Filozofu), which is examined within the scope of this study, the opposite characters of Mustafa Ali and Cavit constitute an important example in the context of otherness. Accordingly, with the help of a semiotic analysis based on Greimas's semiotic analysis method, the aim and the importance of the study is to demonstrate the other within the confines of capitalism and its impositions and to showcase how an othered person can reconnect with his own essence, overcome otherness, and reach his true self, as illustrated within the context of the movie Dairy Philosopher.