Barthes' narrative codes

Roland Barthes came up with a theory of certain codes that can be used to describe the narrative of a story known as the 'narrative codes'.

One of these codes is the action code. This is where an action takes place to indicate what will be the next step. An example of this is the starting of a car engine. This makes the audience believe that they know the next step; this being that the car would drive away. I managed to include the action code in my preliminary task. This is where the character looked at the door beforehand, and walked through the door afterwards.

 

Another narrative code is the mystery code or the enigma code. This is where the narrative is controlled by the amount of information that is given to the audience, grabbing the audiences attention and intriguing them. This was used in my preliminary task slightly, by being vague about the story specifics. However, a general idea of the story could be gotten by the dialogue.

 

A third narrative code used by Barthes was the semic code. This is where signs or symbols are used to give an idea about the narrative by using these symbols that are commonly associated with certain ideas. For example, a gravestone symbolises death. I did not manage to include this code in my preliminary task as I did not know about these codes before this time.

 

Another narrative code is the cultural code. This code is where the narrative makes the audience aware of the social and cultural setting of the piece. An example of this is dusty towns and horses for an old western film. I managed to use this code to an extent in my preliminary task by showing using the establishing shot to show a building and the characters clothing to show a lower class.



 The final narrative code is the code of opposites. This is where the narrative relies on binary opposites or complete opposites to explain the character. An example of this the protagonist and the antagonist of a film. I did not use this effectively as there was no opposites and there was very little difference in the characters.

Overall, while I managed to include some of the narrative codes such as the action code and the cultural code, I failed to use the to use the semic code and the code of opposites. I will do my best to include these codes in my main piece.