Barthes Theory

Roland Barthes describes text as ‘ a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signified’. A signifier is something’s physical form or connotation; a signified is how something is being represented. This means that a narrative is a mass of objects, in which you can determine however you perceive it into what it signifies. There is no structure to the signified, therefore can be interpreted differently to each viewer.

This is what makes up an ‘open’ narrative; there are many different ways the narrative could go and no definite storyline.  The opposite of this is a closed narrative, which only seems to have one way to follow the narrative, and usually gets resolved.

Usually closed narratives are used in comedy, as open narrative causes mystery and thrill, something that most comedy don’t rate very highly in importance. As the story within a comedy is usually quite simple; the unnecessary thrill from having an open narrative is not needed. An example of an open narrative is a soap opera like Eastenders. In this; there could be no ending, and characters shift in and out of the spotlight and prominence. There is more than one storyline and the time in the text may feel more like ‘real time’ with less time-lapse effects.

One film that does use an open narrative is Love Actually (2003, dir. Richard Curtis). Which is classed as a romantic comedy. It follows the love lives of a variety of people in the 5-week run up to Christmas. It was released in November 2003, which coincided with the narrative allowing to bring in the audience in more. All ten stories interact with each other, and there are no character types, just different situations and opinions. This must then be an open narrative as there are many ways the story could go and no obvious structure.



An example of a closed narrative would be opposite to this. There is only mainly one storyline, which gets followed through to the end. And all the audience’s attention is on that one story; this allows for the audience to make presumptions about the characters (such as Propp’s character types). Also as there is only one story, it allows you to go deeper into the story, with the use of voice overs or flashbacks into past events. These can also be used in open narratives to gain more information quickly. There is usually a smaller number of main characters in a closed narrative and usually time is compressed more than it would be in open narratives. Usually, information provided in a closed narrative is special to that narrative and is different to the outside world and specialised to that story.

Closed narratives are used in most films, and as an example; Scott Pilgrim vs the world (2010, dir. Edgar Wright). The plot follows the story of Scott defeating Ramona’s evil exes, and because of the simple storyline it is easier to make presumptions about the type of characters, for example, it is obvious Scott is the hero and the exes are the villains. It also allows us to go into the back-story behind the exes, which if there was more than one narrative- we may not be able to do. There is also a smaller main cast than Love Actually. There seems less of a gap as there are multiple villains in Scott Pilgrim; but if you count them as a whole, then it becomes considerably less. Also, what happens in the narrative isn’t related to what happens in real life. For example, the release of Love Actually reflected the beginning of the narrative, whilst Scott Pilgrim is a film to escape into a fantasy world. Although, the different back stories of the different exes, could be considered the start of an open narrative.

Barthes codes- 

Barthes believes these are all present in a media text.

The enigma code- this starts a story, or asks a question but doesn’t give you the answer or the rest of the story. This is used particularly a lot in trailers, as they get the audience interested, but don’t give everything away so that they become interested and want to see the rest of the film. In general for film as a whole, the enigma code is used mainly in thrillers and horrors to create tension. The enigma code can be made through the use of: Jammings (openly showing there is no answer); Snares (avoiding the truth)and Equivocations (only telling part of the truth).

By using these, it keeps the audience guessing and therefore keeping their interest in the film. For trailers, you couldn’t show most of these in a trailer, as it may give too much information away. But you could perhaps show the aftermath of one of these events; or perhaps showing an equivocation and not revealing it is the whole truth.

The proiaretic code works in conjunction with the enigma code; the proiaretic code is where one event suggests another event will happen- this therefore keeps the reader guessing and interested into what will come next, which is also good for building tension. Barthes describes the proiaretic and enigma codes as dependant on one another.

Barthes also theorised connotation and denotation in his connotative code. Denotation is the literal meaning of a word, whereas connotation is what it represents. By using connotations in a media text, the filmmaker can portray another level to the text. This also means that a limited text can be analysed deeper than it would otherwise, by using what is in the text and thinking what it represents.

Similarly, he also had the symbolic code, which shows symbolism within the text; allowing the text to be processed deeply too.

Lastly there is the referential code, which identifies anything that is taken as fact in the text. For example- a period drama may show magic as a fact within the text; however other films will not. This is also called the culture code as it is similar to cultural relativism (where different cultures believe different things and this is correct for that culture)


Bibliography for this post:
http://www.slideshare.net/etaylorchs/narrative-5566418
http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=narrative
http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/5codes.htm