Roland Barthes Enigma Code

Barthes Engima code is a theory that suggest a text (weather that be television, film, a poster etc.) portrays a mystery to draw an audience in , pose questions and a such , become intrigued in the piece. For, instance, a murder mystery will often not reveal the identity of the murder until the end of the story, which passes the question "Who is the murderer".

Barthes theory of the five codes is a way of grouping signifiers according to the role they play in the text., these are categorised as:

The Hermeneutic Code

The voice of truth, this is an element in a story that is not explained and therefore, exits as an enigma for the reader ,raising questions.

The Proairetic Code

The voice of empires, adds suspense to the text and sequential elements of action in the text. Tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what happens next.

The Semantic Code

The voice of the perso. Semantic code points out to any element in a text that suggest an additional meaning by the way of connotation which the story suggest.

The Symbolic code

The voice of the symbol . It is similar to the Semantic code but is wider and deeper in meaning, which is done through the use of antithesis, were meaning rises out of conflict ideas.

The cultural code

The voice of knowledge. Looks at audiences wider cultural understanding morality and ideology.