Roland Barthes

Narrative and the 5 codes

Born 12th Noveber 1915 and died at 64 on the 25th March 1980. Best known for being a French philosopher, critic, literary theorists and semiotician. The code theory He describes a text as: a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilises extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminablethe systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it on the infinity of language (S/Z 1974 translation) In other words Barthes is saying that you can picture a text like a tangled ball of threads that needs to be unravelled. Once the ball of thread has been unravelled we are portrayed a wide set of different meanings. Theyll also be lots of different viewpoints in how we look at the narrative creating us to continue unravelling this ball of thread from different angles and coming up with different meanings.

This summarises why he said that texts can be either open or closed and also narrowed down the action of a text into 5 different codes which can be used in any kind of narrative 1. The Hermeneutic Code (HER) (the voice of the truth) Is the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts, in order to a drop clues in throughout to help create mystery 2. The Enigma/Proairetic Code (ACT) (Empirical voice) The way the tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what happens next 3. The Semantic Code (SEM) (The voice of the person) The semantic code points to any element in a text that suggest a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation which the story suggest. Connotation = Cultural/underlining meaning, what it symbolises 4. The Symbolic Code (SYM) (The voice of symbols) This is very similar to the Semantic Code but acts at a wider level by organising semantic meanings into a broader and deeper set of meaning. Typically done in the use of antithesis, where meaning arise out of opposing and conflicting ideas 5. The Cultural Code (REF) (The voice of science) This looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology