Roland Barthes was a semiologist (paid to look at texts and find out how they were put together).
Open texts - unravelled in a lot of different ways.
Closed texts - there is only once obvious line.
Barthes also decided that the threads (of a text/story) that you pull on to try and unravel the meaning are called narrative codes.
The 5 Narrative Codes
1. Action Code - applies to any action that implies a further narrative action.
2. Enigma Code - refers to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the audience.
3. The Semantic Code - any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional, meaning by way of connotation.
4. The Cultural Code - any element in a narrative that refers 'to a science or body of knowledge'. In other words, the cultural codes then to point to our shared knowledge about the way the world works.
5. The Symbolic - Levi-Strauss argued that the narrative structures have binary oppositions, eg. good vs evil.
Binary oppositions - the contrast between to exclusive words, eg. on and off, up and down.
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