Semiotic reading of costumes in Nigerian video films: <i>African Bride</i> as a paradigm

Abstract

Semiotics is a theory developed in Linguistics for studying the structure and meaning of language. It is the study of signs and symbols and the way they generate meanings. Although semiotics was developed in the field of Linguistics to study the structure and signification of language, it has also been used to study various non-linguistics signs systems. In this study, we make a semiotic analysis of costumes and how they express the user’s sociocultural attributes. We demonstrate the phenomenal role that costume as a form of communication plays within the cultural and social society, specifically in video films. This paper makes use of semiotic theory and film analysis through qualitative methodology in order to analyze selected Nigerian video films. This form of analysis has been found to allow costume a distinct voice in words dominated film. It reinforces costume as communication through motifs, lines, shape, colour, fabric and texture. This work has been able to create a semiotics distinction of costumes in films using the socio-cultural and conventional interpretations of colours, fabrics, styles and textures of clothes and accessories. It has attempted to understand how colours, fabrics and textures convey meaning in film. We discover that costume aids us to form individual opinions about characters and at the same time reconstruct their sociocultural realities. Based on this discovery, semiotic analysis can be recommended as a useful adjunct to traditional idealistic research, particularly when the film costume being studied is so complex that objectivity is hard to maintain.