Roland Barthes

Week 3: Friday/Homework

Today we were introduced to Roland Barthes, who came up with a theory that suggests a text and poses questions to the audience.  He thought that all narratives share structural features that are brought together in different ways.




He came up with five enigma codes to group signifiers according to the role they play in the text:

• The Hermenentic Code:  The voice of truth.

This is the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts, in order to drop clues throughout to create mystery.

• The Proairetic Code:  The voice of empirics.

This is the way the tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what happens next.

• The Semantic Code:  The voice of the person.

This is the way elements in the text can suggest a particular and often additional meaning, connoting what the story suggests.

• The Symbolic Code:  The voice of the symbol.

This is similar to the Semantic Code, but in a broader way.  This is typically done where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflicting ideas.

• The Cultural Code:  The voice of knowledge.

This looks at the audience's wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology.

Readerly and Writerly Texts

Barthes thought that most texts were 'readerly' texts.  These texts' style and content are represented in the traditional linear way, meaning the audience is simply receiving the information presented to them.  They attempt to give one meaning instead of multiple ones, commonly seen in advertising.

On the other hand, 'writerly' texts are the opposite and reveal the elements 'readerly' texts don't show.  These texts put the audience in control, trying to determine the meaning of the text.  The 'writerly' texts tend to undermine the reader's expectations.