Roland Barthes 5 Codes

                                                In the name of God
Short Story, a graduate course
Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch
Taught by: Dr. Negar Sharif    
Written by: Atiyeh Saleh Mohammad Ali Nejad and Sadeq Saleh Mohammad Ali Nejad
Subject : Roland Barthes 5 Codes
     Roland Barthes is a crucial figure in modern literary theory. He is one of the writers who can be said has established the foundation for modern literary theory ;in addition, Barthes is famous for his five codes to show that how meaning is produced and spread over the text .Moreover, he introduced five codes such as Hermeneutic , Semiotic , Symbolic , Proairetic and cultural .These five codes are as follows .
   In fact , when the writer of the story foils some details of the story in order to increase the effect of final awareness or revation of diegetic .Technically speaking, the diegesis of a narrative is its entire created world of the story .Actually , narrator prevent the early awareness of the story throw these way :first, by offering the reader some snares which refer to escaping from the truth .Second , by presenting some equivocation or what we call the mixture of truth and snare .Third, by partial or incomplete answers and finally by suspended answers .The Hermeneutic  code (Her) refer to any elements in a story that is not explained ;therefore, there is an enigma or mystery for the reader .Thus , this enigma raises questions that needed explanation .For example , when we read a detective story some questions draw our attention to some special enigma or mystery such as Who is this a bout ?,What is happening ?,What is the obstacle? And who committed the murder? Thus the reader hooked to the text to answer these questions .
Therefore in Cathedral a story by Raymond Carver, the narrative in the first paragraph tells about the narrator’s wife of the story who was in contact with the blind man .Even when she was far from him and did not work for him actually, the first enigma of the story is that why this woman was in contact with the blind man .Actually, we should read from the beginning to the end to answer this question.
   The proairetic code (Act.) refers to other major structuring principle that increase the interests or the suspense of the reader or review. In fact , this code applies to any action that indicates a further narrative action .For example , a gunslinger draw his gun on an enemy and we wonder that what the resolution of this action will be? ,in addition , we wait to see weather kills his enemy or he wounded himself ?;moreover, this code builds up excitement by referring to any other action or event in another word this indicates something will happen so the reader guesses the rest .  Actually , for the decoding both Hermeneutic  and proairetic , in the story or movie ,  you should read a book or a film temporally from the beginning to the end .
   The semantic points to any element in a text that suggest a feature, often additional meaning by the way of connotation .By “connotation ” ,Barthes doesn’t mean a free-from association of ideas (where anything goes ) but an internal connection in the text; in addition, this code deals with all the connotations which form the qualities of characters or actions. For example, in Cathedral a story by Raymond Carver, as the narrator heard that the name of the Blind man’s wife ,he said that “that’s a name for colored woman .Was his wife a Negro?” This shows that the narrator has an attitude toward Negro and if not why he asked this question from his wife and his wife answered “Are you crazy?” Therefore, the text doesn’t directly show that the narrator has attitude toward Afro-American, but the reader by decoding the character’s dialogue can understand the internal connotation of the text;in addition ,in another part of the story when the  narrator mentioned that his wife described   the life of the blind man with his wife(Beulah) in this way , “that after they had been inseparable for eight years-my wife’s word, inseparable –Beulah’s health went in to rapid decline.”. The word inseparable means that they are in love with each other so as the reader see the word inseparable, he or she gets the idea that love exists between the blind man and his wife ; moreover, the narrator asserted that “ she went in and swallowed all the pills and capsules in the medicine chest and washed the down with a bottle of gin. Then  she got in to a hot bath and passed out .But instead of dying she got sick.”; therefore , the narrator implied that she had suicide and the reader gets this idea indirectly from the text .
   The Symbolic code (SYM.) regards all the symbolic patterns notably the patterns of antithesis and oppositions, observable in the text; moreover, it can be difficult to be distinguished from the semiotic code because Barthes is not always clear on the distinction of these codes ;in fact ,the easiest way of the symbolic code is as “deeper” as structural principle that organize semantic meaning . The symbolic level involves a complex array of symbolic codes operating within society: gold as a sign of wealth, of initiation, of social exchange. These symbolic levels of meaning are obviously the connotative meanings of the still in question and they can all be named and discussed through the semiological method of reading developed by Barthes in the 1960s.





   Cultural code (PEF.) concerns ‘the numerous codes of knowledge or wisdom to which the text continually refers’. Barthes notes that, while ‘all codes’ are in a sense ‘cultural’, what he is calling cultural codes here ‘afford the discourse a basis in scientific or moral authority’ and are thus also nameable as ‘reference codes’ (S/Z: 18). Also, it explains any element in narrative that refers “to science or body of knowledge”. In other words this code shared knowledge about the way the world works, including properties that we can designate as “physical, physiological, medical, literary, historical and etc.”) .For example “the gnomic code” is one of the cultural codes and refers to those cultural codes that are tied to Cliché’s, proverbs or popular saying of various sorts. As a case in point in Cathedral by Raymond Carver ,when the blind man told that “I have a winter in my beard now.”, Here, winter is refer to oldness due to cultural code operating within society ;moreover in Cathedral when the blind man most of the time running his fingers through his beard this shows that he is thinking that only the reader can get this point from decoding this cultural code .

Together, these codes, are like joint of the text .In Addition for understanding the meaning of the text, the reader should decode them. Barthes suggested that there  be one or more of the five codes that describe the meaning of a text .In addition he developed a concept that every narrative is interwoven with five codes that drive one to maintain interest in the story. Actually these five codes function like a ‘weaving of voices ’ .According to Barthes they allow a reader to see a work not just a single narrative line but as an intertwining of meanings that give a story its complexity and richness .