ABSTRACT
Discourse theorists argue that all social phenomena is structured semiotically by codes and rules, and that this sign system can be used to analyze culture and society. To correctly interpret a symbolic communication may require the crossing of academic boundaries such as: sociology, art history, art criticism, and cultural studies. Based on social situations and types of experience, a genre consists of distinct social codes, conventions, and meanings and indicates the type of situation. Observations, concepts, and tools developed by different scholarly disciplines may be necessary to uncover the meaning and significance of a particular visual narrative. In the visual narrative, released March 1989 by Sire Records, Madonna is portrayed as a witness to a rape as well as the subsequent miscarriage of justice. Having grown up a Catholic, Madonna uses a church to make her point on victimization. The “givens” of this narrative are a religious sanctuary whose physical arrangements contain some traditional symbols and icons of victimhood.
