Barthes' narrative codes

 

Barthes' Narrative Code

Action code: This is when any other action or event indicates something else is going to happen, which gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next. Such as someone packing a bag indicates that they are going somewhere or leaving. We used this in our preliminary task as we showed someone walking to a door so the next thing that would happen would be the person walking through the door.

 

Mystery code: Refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader/ audience. The purpose of this is to keep the audience guessing. We used this in our preliminary task as we didn't show people what the documents handed of were until the last minute.

 

Semic code: A seme is a unit of meaning or a sign that express cultural stereotypes. These signs allow the author to describe characters, settings and events. The semic code focuses upon information that the narration provides in order to suggest abstract concepts. We didn't use semic code in our preliminary task.

 

Cultural code: The cultural code designates any element in a narrative that refers to common bodies of knowledge such as historical, mythological or scientific. The cultural code of our preliminary task was 2 stereotypically western youths handing over a document.

 

Code of opposites: Code of opposites states that there will always be opposites in whatever type of media they are in. We used code of opposites in our preliminary task as we had a boy and a girls star in the task.