Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes describes a text as: ' A galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifields; it has no beginnning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable... the systems of meaning can take over this absoloutley plural text,but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language...'
He said that texts could be 'open' or 'closed'

Roland barthes narrowed down the action of a text in five codes which are woven into any narrative:

• The hermeneutic code (HER)

Is the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts, in order to drop clues in throughout to create mystery.

• The enigma code (ACT)

The way the tension if bilt up and the audience is left wondering what happens next.

• The cultural code (REF)

Looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology.

• The semantic code (SEM)

Points to any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meadning by way of connotation which the story suggests.
Connotation= cultural/underlying meaning, what it symbolises.

• The symbolic code (SYM)

 Organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. This is typically done in the use of antithesis, where new meaning arrises out of opposing and conflict ideas.