Barthes' Code

Barthes' Code:

Barthes suggests that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an absolute plurality of potential meanings. We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle, by pulling a different thread if you like, and create an entirely different meaning. And so on. An infinite number of times, if you wanted to.

Simplified- a text may be open (unravelled in a lot of different ways) or closed (there is only one obvious thread to pull on)

Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meanings are called Narrative Codes and that they could be categorised in the following ways:
-The enigma code (ie Answers & Questions)
- Symbols & Signs
- Points of Cultural Reference
- Simple description/reproduction