LiteraryCriticism课件..ppt

Literary Criticism Class #2 S/Z 1970 An analysis of Balzac’s story “Sarrasine” The proairetic code (1) the code of plot provides indications of actions. anticipation of an action’s resolution; any action initiated must be completed. Barthe’s example Barthes quotes "Sarrasine"-"'To be loved by her [Zambinella], or to die!' Such was the decree Sarrasine passed upon himself"-and "decodes" this as the following action: "'To decide'"-"to propose an alternative" (117). The hermeneutic code (2) Unanswered questions // puzzles // enigmas which provide narrative suspense. Barthe’s example "The title raises a question: What is Sarrasine? A noun? A name? A thing? A man? A woman?" (17). The cultural code (3) “examines the stock of social knowledge on which the work draws.” Barthe’s example Sarrasine discovers the truth about Zambinella after referring to him as a "she" while talking with the Roman Prince Chigi. "'Where are you from?'", the Prince asks him. "'Has there ever been a woman on the Roman stage? And don't you know about the creatures who sing female roles in the Papal States?'" This evokes the reference code, Barthes asserts: "History of music in the Papal States" (184). The semic/connotative code (4) Thematic elements embedded in character Barthe’s example The title "has an additional connotation, that of femininity, which will be obvious to any French-speaking person, since that language automatically takes the final 'e' as a specifically feminine linguistic property, particularly in the case of a proper name whose masculine form (Sarrazin) exists in French onomastics" (17). The symbolic code (5) consists of contrasts and pairings related to the most binary polarities —male and female, night and day, good and evil, life and art, and so on. (Barry 51) Barthe’s example Barthes quotes the lines recounting the engrossment of the narrator's companion in the painting of Adonis when she learns the model for it was a relative of Mme de Lanty. The narrator feels sp