The Other in the Audiovisual Narrative: An Approach to the Double's Narrative Figure

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose an approach to the study of the double's figure in the audiovisual narrative. The study of this complex and deep relationship –its presence covers the different aspects of the device of representation that starts a filmic text reading (representatives, symbolics, perceptives)– focused on its narrative function. In this sense, this text questions its usual definition, the double understood as a theme in a kind of films, to reveal the nuclear role that this form plays in the narrative structure of the audiovisual tale, although that its significance is muted in the manuals of narrative and/or audiovisual language. Although this analysis relies on the contributions of the structuralist study, does not adhere to the principles of its methodological perspective. From the perspective provided by the method of textual analysis, the tale can not be reduced to a mechanical form, the tale is a symbolic discourse that built the collective imaginary. The form of the double, whose significance has been associated since ancient times to our days to psychological and anthropological values, symbolizes the cultural signifier of human identity. Finally, we present one case study following the basic principles of the method of textual analysis: Miller's Crossing (Joel Coen, 1990).