The Study of the Semiotic Connection between the Other-Logic of the Face and Storytelling

This article analyzes the face not as a simple symbol of emotional expression or a visual clue for identifying individuals, but as an the other-logical(l’outre-logique) phenomenon that contains the seeds of interpretive ambiguity and ethical implications. A semiotic approach centered on Umberto Eco and Paul Ekman explains the face as a structure that can be interpreted according to cultural codes, providing an important theoretical basis for coordinating the coherence of storytelling and the flow of emotions. However, this codification of the face often fails to adequately capture experiences such as emotional excess, silence, and pain, and instead generates moments of interpretive ambiguity that halt or shift the narrative flow. Georges Bataille conceptualizes this as the “unquestionable face,” arguing that the face disrupts the sign system and induces a crack in meaning generation at the point where it exceeds perception. Additionally, Emmanuel Levinas regards the face as the manifestation of the other and the manifestation of the ethical imperative “do not kill,” emphasizing that the face functions as an ethical summoning prior to language. Thus, the face functions both as a sign that conveys meaning and as an ethical intrusion that exceeds meaning, and this double structure prompts a rethinking of the origin of narrative and the possibility of storytelling. This article argues that, from this perspective, the other-logic of the face can serve as a condition for the emergence of narrative and as a decisive theoretical foundation for the construction of post-cinematic characters in the future.