A SEMIOTIC AND PSYCHOANALYTIC ANALYSIS OF VISUAL AND TEXTUAL REPRESENTATIONS IN OVERTON’S THE SILENT CHILD

Abstract

The article provides a semiotic and psychoanalytic interpretation of an Academy Award winning short film The Silent Child (2017) by Chris Overton that emphasizes the way in which film signs and subconscious processes create meanings of deafness, emotional deprivation, and identity formation. The study is based on the triadic model of signs provided by Charles Sanders Peirce and psychoanalytic theories proposed by Freud, Lacan, and Winnicott, and the research issues How do silence, gesture, gaze, and the space elements of composition work as systems of expression in conveying psychological reality in Libby. Instead of shaping deafness as a medical inadequacy or narrative metaphor, the analysis previews the communication inequality and affective neglect as socially constructed states. With a keen focus on mise-en-scene, framing, colour, lighting, and sound design, the article shows how the film alters the concept of silence into the full-fledged semiotic space that expresses the trauma, desire, and resistance. Combining the semiotics and psychoanalytic film theory, this paper is relevant to current theoretical discussions in film studies and disability discourse by demonstrating how the linguistic implications of depriving the deaf children of language use can have both ethical and emotional implications.