ABSTRACT
Postage stamps represent a marginalized yet culturally significant medium in the history of visual communication in North Macedonia.
This paper explores postage stamps issued in North Macedonia from independence (1991) to the present as visual artifacts that reproduce and transmit cultural identity. The analysis is based on a combined methodology that includes visual and semiotic analysis, as well as a contextual framework for interpreting symbols as “significant carriers of cultural memory” (Nora, 1989, p. 9). The research encompasses carefully selected postage stamps from different decades, which are analyzed according to their formal structure, use of color, typography, and symbolism. The study demonstrates that the design of these stamps is closely linked to processes of national identification, institutional stabilization, and cultural identity. As Stuart Hall emphasizes, “identity is not something already given, but a process of continuous production” (Hall, 1996, p. 4), and postage stamps function as micro-archives of this process. The aim of the paper is to show that although these visual objects function administratively, their visual structure and aesthetics contain profound cultural implications, making them a valuable subject for cultural-semiotic analysis.
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