Roland Bartes' Enigma Code

In lesson on Friday we discussed Roland Barthes' enigma code theory.

Roland Barthes was born in 1915 and died in 1980 at the age of 64. Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic and semiotican (the study of cultural signs and symbols).
According to the enigma code, there is more than one way to read text, to uncover a text's plural meaning you have to read the text, then re-read it and everytime time you read it you reveal another meaning within the text.

"A galaxy of signifers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the code it mobilises extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable. The systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language" - Roland Barthes

Barthes' theory of the five codes is a way of grouping them according to the role they play in the team

The five codes are:

• The Hermeneutic code - the voice of truth
• The Proairetic code - the voice of empirics
• The Semantic code - the voice of the person
• The Symbolic code - the voice of the symbol
• The Cultural code - the voice of knowledge

Hermeneautic code is the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts which allows the text to drop clues throughout and to keep the text a mystery to the readers.

Proairetic code is how tension is built up and the readers become eager to guess what is going to happen next.

Semantic code points to any element in a text that suggests a certain or additional meaning which the text suggests.

Symbolic code is similar to the semantic code but organises the semantic meanings into deeper sets of meaning. This leads to new meaning coming from opposing and conflicting ideas.

Cultural code is when the readers looks into wilder knowledge of morality and ideology.

Remembering these code's in mind apparently make text easier to understand and break down all text more clearly for people. This theory can also be used upon title sequences aswell, the way sequences can drop in sly hints which the audience can most likely pick up from watching more than once, for example the 'Catch me if you can' title sequence includes the whole film plot within the sequence, however the audience does not realise this immediately due to the distraction of the animation, sound and the text appearing on the screen.