Blog Assignment #3: Clip Analysis from The Sixth Sense

For this assignment, we will be working from Roland Barthes’ notion of the “writerly” text. According to Barthes, “…the writerly text is ourselves writing” (S/Z, 5); therefore, you, the reader, will be interpreting the text (in this case a clip from The Sixth Sense) in order to produce meaning from it. Using Barthes’ Five Codes of Meaning, you will identify the codes within this clip, labeling them as Barthes does in S/Z. It is important to note that Barthes does not only identify the codes, but he discusses their meanings in detail. In your analysis, you should explain why you believe a code exists, and what meaning you derive from it. Barthes claims that we should be able to appreciate the plural meanings derived from different interpretations of a text. Therefore, there are not necessarily right or wrong interpretations – so long as you can fully support your argument for the existence of a code within the text, we should be able to derive multiple meanings from even a short text such as this one.

Since we are dealing with a movie clip, the codes can take the form of spoken dialogue, auditory cues or music, visuals, and/or editing choices. Remember, Barthes says that “Each literary description is a view” (55). He describes the writer (read: artist of any kind) as someone who places a frame around reality, creating a perspective from which we see the story being told. Every decision the artist makes creates a frame. Decisions to include or exclude details, to frame characters in a particular way, or to place actions within a specific chronology all affect the way we interpret the scene.

CLIP à http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLyYYHqVTsE (The Sixth Sense, 1999)

REQUIREMENTS: 300 words minimum. Post must be live by 5:00 pm on Friday, September 10, 2010. Mimic Barthes’ writing style (see handout for examples), which means: describe the detail you are discussing in italics then identify each code with a star (first code = 1 star, 2^nd code = 2 stars, etc.) and support your claim for each code immediately after identifying it. If you are going to discuss different moments within the clip, you should separate them into different paragraphs. Barthes wrote separate paragraphs for individual sentences or groups of sentences in his analysis. You should do the same, no matter if you are discussing a visual detail or spoken dialogue.

Barthes’ Code:

Hermeneutic Code (HER) = denotes an enigma that moves

the narrative forward; it sets up delays and obstacles that maintain

suspense.

DELAYS:

1. Thematisation. What in the narrative is an enigma?

2. Positioning. Additional confirmations of the enigma.

3. Formulation of the enigma.

4. Promise of an answer of the enigma.

5. Fraud. Circumvention of the true answer.

6. Equivocation. Mixture of fraud and truth.

7. Blocking. The enigma cannot be solved.

8. Suspended answer. Stopping the answering after having begun.

9. Partial answer. Some facets of the truth are revealed.

10. Disclosure of the truth.

Proairetic Code (ACT) = organizes small sequences of

behaviors

Semic Code (SEM) = signifiers (people, places, objects) to

which unstable meanings adhere (Sarrasine, wealth, beauty)

Symbolic Code (SYM) = meanings that are only represented by

metonymies (figures of speech), which renders the text open

to different interpretations (castration)

Cultural Code (REF) = reference to scientific or cultural

knowledge