Five major codes

S/Z

Cover of the first edition
Author	Roland Barthes
Original title	S/Z
Country	France
Language	French
Subject	"Sarrasine"
Publication date	1970
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
ISBN
OCLC	10314663

S/Z, published in 1970, is Roland Barthes's structural analysis of "Sarrasine", the short story by Honoré de Balzac. Barthes methodically moves through the text of the story, denoting where and how different codes of meaning function. Barthes's study has had a major impact on literary criticism and is historically located at the crossroads of structuralism and post-structuralism.

Barthes's analysis is influenced by the structuralist linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure; both Barthes and Saussure aim to explore and demystify the link between a sign and its meaning. But Barthes moves beyond structuralism in that he criticises the propensity of narratology to establish the overall system out of which all individual narratives are created, which makes the text lose its specificity (différance) (I). Barthes uses five specific "codes" that thematically, semiotically, and otherwise make a literary text reflect structures that are interwoven, but not in a definite way that closes the meaning of the text (XII). Barthes insists on the (different degrees of) plurality of a text—a plurality that should not be reduced by any privileged interpretation. He also flags the way in which the reader is an active producer of interpretations of the text, rather than a passive consumer. (II).

Barthes defines five codes that define a network (or a ) that form a space of meaning that the text runs through. But these codes and their mutual relations are not clear structures, as to close the multivariance of the text. Thus, Barthes defines the code vaguely: Each of the units of the text marks a virtual digression toward a catalogue of other units. Each code also appears as voices that altogether weave the text, though each of them for a while may dominate the text. (XII)

Two of the codes are sequential and structure the text in an irreversible way (XV): The hermeneutic code (HER) denotes an enigma that moves the narrative forward; it sets up delays and obstacles that maintain suspense. The proairetic (ACT) code organises (small) intertwined sequences of behaviors, each sequence has its own regularity that does not follow the narrative's logic (though it is used in it). (XI)

The rest of the codes are reversible (XV). Two of them structure the text: The semic code (SEM) designates a special kind of signifiers (e.g. person, place, object) to which adhere unstable meanings and that enable the development of a theme through the story. (XI, LXXXI) The symbolic code (SYM) are meanings that are constitutive (stemming from the fields of rhetoric, sexuality, or economy), but cannot be represented in the text, except in metonymies, which renders the text open to different interpretations (XI, XCII).