Research: Roland Barthes 5 Narrative Codes

    Hey all readers! As I continue to work on developing my portfolio project, I have continued to research a lot about the media sphere in an aim to help me with this planning stage of the project. In this post, I have researched and focused on Roland Barthes and his media theory on Narrative Codes. 

    Roland Barthes was a French essayist and social and literary critic who was born in 1915 and died in 1980. Barthes focused his writings on semiotics (the study and analysis of signs or symbols) and played a huge role in that field as well as in the establishment of structuralism and the New Criticism theory. 

Roland Barthes

    In his 1970 book S/Z, Barthes used Honoré de Balzac's short story "Sarrasine" as an example of his theory for 5 Narrative Codes, which stemmed from his analysis of narrative structures. Barthes narrative codes theory helped explain how meaning can be created in a text or media text as explained by these 5 codes. In his book, he outlines 5 narrative codes (aka systems of signs or meanings in a narrative) that can be used to understand and convey meaning in a text. 

These 5 narrative codes are explained below.  

1. Hermeneutic or Enigma Code: A Hermeneutic or Enigma Code refers to the code in a narrative when there is withheld information, gaps, or questions that are used to spark mystery and leave things unanswered or unexplained. This narrative code is used by emphasizing and encouraging audience engagement. This code is commonly used in mystery films/texts where the goal is to keep the audience guessing who committed a crime or even in horror films/texts.

2. Proairetic or Action Code: A Proairetic or Action Codes are plot points in a narrative that are caused by events that lead to other events or actions. Because they lead to other events, they made audiences wonder what event is to come. This could be things like a car chase that keeps the audience wondering if the criminal in the car will be caught. 

3. Semantic Code: A Semantic Code is focused on signs or elements of a text and how they represent more than basic definitions or the literal object. They carry connotations, not just denotations, to bring more knowledge on character, plot, etc. This code is often used to convey a specific theme or meaning to its audience.

4. Symbolic Code: A Symbolic Code is focused on using signs, symbols, or metaphors in a text that typically represent antithesis or opposition. These codes are a battle between contrasting signs. This code is helpful in emphasizing the difference between whatever is shown or represented. 

5. Cultural Code: A Cultural Code exists outside of the media text and comes from outside a production as historical, social, psychological, and even literary references. In order for cultural codes to work, the audience, better yet, the target audience, must understand them.

This video is very helpful and helped me break down this theory:

    Takeaways: In my own production and film opening, I hope to utilize Hermeneutic or Enigma Codes to create suspense or mystery. Considering the fact that my opening genre is horror, I hope to utilize this code by not explaining the reasoning why bad things happen to my protagonist after she does a tarot card reading, and in doing so, I hope to leave a plot point unexplained to build fear or suspense. 

Resources:

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Roland Barthes | Biography and Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 July 1998, www.britannica.com/biography/Roland-Gerard-Barthes.

Introduction to Roland Barthes, Module on the Five Codes. www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/narratology/modules/barthescodes.html.