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BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY JAMES ARTHUR ANDERSON
The Altar: A Novel of Horror
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The first two codes, the action and hermeneutic codes, define the narrative elements that distinguish between the story and the discourse. The action code resembles the grammatical diagram of Todorov, or the “story” of Genette, except that it concentrates more on the physical actions of the story—Todorov’s “verbs” in the plot sentence. Since I will be applying the theories of Todorov and Genette in my analysis, I will focus on Barthes’ action code primarily in terms of the physical location and movement of the plot’s actions (i.e. outside to inside; down to up). The hermeneutic code, or “code of enigmas,” reveals the series of questions or puzzles that an author uses to create suspense in a story. The reader desires answers to these puzzles, yet the author withholds this information until the last possible moment. This code is especially important in popular fiction—indeed, the detective story finds its sole raison d’être in the code of enigmas. This code, again, overlaps some of Genette’s work and will be used only occasionally in my analysis.
The last three codes, the cultural, connotative, and symbolic codes, work together to create character, enhance meaning, and determine theme in a literary work. The cultural code examines the literary work’s explicit and implicit references to the culture in which it was written. Understanding this code enables the reader to view the work as being the product of a particular culture and society, and may expose themes and meaning deemed important by that particular culture. The connotative code schematizes the dominant connotations of the text’s language in regard to character and setting. This code often develops character in traditional stories; in science fiction (and most popular literature), where plot is more important than character, the connotative code often contributes primarily to the work’s overall theme. Finally, the symbolic code assumes that meaning occurs through binary oppositions that create theme through their conflict. The psychoanalytical code, for example, is a specialized symbolic code based on Freud’s theories.
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