Roland

Barthes
By Hannah
Lansdown
 He describes a text as a galaxy of signifiers, not
a structure of signified; it has no beginning; it is
reversible; we gain access to it by several
entrances. He also said that texts can be open
or closed.
He narrowed the action of a text into 5 codes

Theory which can be applied to any narrative. These are:

1. The hermeneutic code
2. The enigma code
3. The symbolic code
4. The cultural code
5. The semantic code
 This code is the voice of the truth
The This code explains how a story refrains from
hermeneu revealing all of the important information or
facts . It does this so it can put clues
tic code throughout the film to help add a sense of
mystery
 This is the empirical voice
The This code is used to build up tension so the
enigma audience is left guessing about what may
happen next. This means that the audience
code are kept interested in the story and are more
engaged.
 The voice of symbols

The This is similar to the semantic code. It

organises semantic meanings into broader
symbolic and deeper sets of meaning.
They are things which draw upon our
code experience and understanding of other
media texts
The The voice of science
cultural Looks at the audiences wider cultural
knowledge, morality and ideology
code
 The voice of the person
The This refers to any elements in a text that
suggest a particular meaning by way of
semantic connotation which the story suggests.

code A connotation is an underlying meaning,

what something symbolises.
 The two most common codes that appear in a thriller
film are the hermeneutic code and enigma code.
The hermeneutic code- This can be applied to many
films in the thriller genre, one of the main
conventions in thrillers is mystery and this code
Barthes generates it. By refraining from revealing everything
the audience will continue to want to watch the film
code and as they will want to find out what happens. Therefore
this code help keep the audience engaged when they
the thriller are watching thrillers.

genre The enigma code- This code is also seen in thrillers a

lot, it helps create tension which is another of the
main conventions of the genre. This is similar to the
hermeneutic code in the sense that it will ensure that
the audience continue to watch the film as they will
be interested to see how the film ends.