"VII. THE STARRED TEXT
We shall therefore star the text, separating, in the manner of a minor earthquake, the blocks of signification of which reading grasps only the smooth surface, imperceptibly soldered by the movement of sentences, the flowing discourse of narration, the “naturalness” of ordinary language. The tutor signifier will be cut up into a series of brief contiguous fragments, which we shall call lexias, since they are units of reading…
...The text, in its mass, is comparable to a sky, at once flat and smooth, deep, without edges and without landmarks; like the soothsayer drawing on it with the tip of his staff an imaginary rectangle wherein to consult, according to certain principles, the flight of birds,the commentator traces through the text certain zones of reading, in order to observe therein the migration of meanings, the outcropping of codes, the passage of citations.
..."
::Excerpt from Barthes' S/Z::
CODES that were used in starring text
PURPOSE of starring this text
Sunday, February 28, 2010
PURPOSE
The reason I chose this text to star mainly stems from the paradox of the multiplicity meant to accompany starred texts. When a text is starred, it is supposed to become a sort of writerly text, in which multiple meanings can be interpreted. However, when I first read Barthes' S/Z, I found his codes and method of starring a text to be very narrowly oriented and confining. Thus, in order to demonstrate the futility of his codes, I chose to star his own text, and then star my own starred text. If his method of starring is really that effective, there would be an infinite amount of perspectives and potential starring points.
True, I stumbled upon a deeper understanding of Barthes' work and, in the end, was able to ask some fundamentally thought-provoking questions because of Barthes' codes, but there was still a wall that met me at the end of the day.
In essence, by starring a starred text on starring texts, I've concluded that Barthes' method of starring texts is not truly as effective as his example and paper seem to demonstrate.
True, I stumbled upon a deeper understanding of Barthes' work and, in the end, was able to ask some fundamentally thought-provoking questions because of Barthes' codes, but there was still a wall that met me at the end of the day.
In essence, by starring a starred text on starring texts, I've concluded that Barthes' method of starring texts is not truly as effective as his example and paper seem to demonstrate.
CODES
These are the codes used to star the texts. They are slightly different from Barthes' because of the nature of the starred text.
The Hermeneutic Code (HER.): Code that induces ambiguity and enigma.
The Proairetic Code (ACT.): Code that builds interest or suspense through action.
The Semantic Code (SEM.): Code that suggests a secondary connotation.
The Cultural Code (REF.): Code that involves something that comes from common knowledge.
The Symbolic Code (SYM.): Code that involves deeper structural principle that organizes semantic meanings, usually by way of antitheses.
The Hermeneutic Code (HER.): Code that induces ambiguity and enigma.
The Proairetic Code (ACT.): Code that builds interest or suspense through action.
The Semantic Code (SEM.): Code that suggests a secondary connotation.
The Cultural Code (REF.): Code that involves something that comes from common knowledge.
The Symbolic Code (SYM.): Code that involves deeper structural principle that organizes semantic meanings, usually by way of antitheses.
Starring the Star (8)
*ACT. "traces": Commentator's action of tracing through the text. Just like the soothsayer that consults the imaginary rectangle he draws. Furthermore, the imaginary rectangle the soothsayer draws around each segment of the sky represents the different lexias of the original text that the commentator splits the text into, "observe": Just like the soothsayer who consults the imaginary rectangle, the commentator observes the text. **SEM. "migration, outcropping, passage": Reminiscent of the "flight of birds" in the previous lexia. Connotation of freedom and a logical order of events. ***SYM. Mobile characteristic of meanings and codes represented through a simile of codes and meanings as free birds. ****SYM. Once again, there is natural imagery. In this case, it is natural organisms, birds, that are used to describe meaning and the ability of starring a text to use these natural organisms and their patterns to find meaning.
*&**&***REF. "Commentator": A person who reads a text and responds to aspects of it, "Simile": Comparative literary technique that incorporates the word "as" or "like", "codes": Normally, codes refer to rules that convert one piece of information into another. Barthes, however takes a different approach.
*&**&***REF. "Commentator": A person who reads a text and responds to aspects of it, "Simile": Comparative literary technique that incorporates the word "as" or "like", "codes": Normally, codes refer to rules that convert one piece of information into another. Barthes, however takes a different approach.
Starring the Star (7)
"*&**ACT. "drawing": Act of drawing an imaginary rectangle in the air, "consult": Act in which soothsayer interprets the flight of birds through the rectangle. What is the purpose of consulting the flight of birds? **SEM. "Soothsayer": A soothsayer is someone who tries to predict the future through personal, spiritual, or religious beliefs. The metaphor given by Barthes says that the readers who star texts are soothsayers, thus, there is positive connotation for starring texts. ***SYM. Antithesis between the real and the imaginary. In this case, however, the two are intersecting. More specifically, there is synthesis between the imaginary rectangle the soothsayer draws in the air with his solid, earthly staff."
*REF. "Synthesis": Usually refers to the combination of two distinct objects, ideas, or other entities. But in this case, in response to theses and antitheses, synthesis refers to the solution of the conflict between the thesis and the antithesis. **HEM. "Imaginary": What is real anyways?
Starring the Star (6)
"*ACT. "comparable": comparative action between the original text and the sky. **&***SEM. "flat and smooth": Connotation of smoothness, and peace. Reminiscent of river imagery used previously, "deep, without edges and without landmarks": Connotation of mystery and something full of undiscovered meaning, waiting to be explored. ****SYM. Original text is once again compared to a natural entity. In this case, instead of a river, the text is compared to the sky, which, like the river, is described as very calm and explorable."
*REF. "Imagery": Any descriptive language that is used to evoke sensory experience. **HEM. "Full of undiscovered meaning": What is the meaning behind starred texts?
Starring the Star (5)
"*ACT. "cut up": Action involving cutting up original text. What is going to happen with cut up text? **HER. "lexias": What are lexias? Why give these units of reading a separate collective name? ***REF. "lexias": Origin is derived from the Greek term for 'word', lexis. Lexis refers to the lexicon that has lexical, instead of grammatical, meaning."
*&**&***REF. "Greek": country in southeastern Europe, generally considered to be the origin of Western civilization, "lexicon": In a language, the lexicon is its vocabulary, including any expressions that have taken on second meanings, "grammatical": a set of structural rules that society has agreed on that language should follow.
Starring the Star (4)
"*******SYM. Nature: Not only is ordinary language described in natural imagery and metaphor (image of the river flowing peacefully), starring a text is also described as happening through natural forces (image of earthquake breaking text into blocks of significance). ********SYM. Peace/Chaos: Connected to previous symbolic code, Barthes provides the reader with an antithesis between peace and chaos as he describes the chaotic ability of earthquakes to break text into segments, and the peaceful character of the river-like original text."
*&**&***&****REF. "metaphor": a literary device that uses an implied comparison to make a point, "symbolic code": A symbol is an object that comes to represent another through association, "antithesis": A counter-proposition that goes against an original proposition, "Peace/Chaos": Peace is associated with order and agreement, while chaos is associated with disorder and disagreement.
Starring the Star (3)
"*&**ACT. "soldered": act of connecting sentences and ideas like act of soldering metal, "flowing": narration's ability to act like a flowing river. ***&****&*****SEM. "smooth", "flowing": connotation of smoothness and natural ebb and flow, "surface": negative connotation of missing what is underneath the surface, "imperceptibly": connotation of something hidden, something imperceptible. ******HEM. ""naturalness" of ordinary language": Is ordinary language and narration natural? Why does Barthe put in "naturalness" in quotes. Is it because he does not actually believe ordinary language is natural? Then what is? If Barthes' implications are taken into account, is the act of starring a text actually what is natural?"
*&**&***REF. "sentences": Common knowledge that literature, speech, etc. are formed by strings of words termed sentences, "narration": the character/voice who tells a story, "Negative connotation": Instead of positive connotation, there is also negative connotation that is meant to induce a negative emotion in a reader. ****HEM. "natural": What is nature? What is natural?
Starring the Star (2)
"*ACT. "separating": act of breaking up the text into blocks of signification. **SEM. "minor earthquake", "blocks of signification": Assuming the metaphor given by Barthes, the minor earthquake caused by nature becomes what breaks up the text into blocks of signification. Text takes on natural connotation. ***REF. "signification": Refers to assumed knowledge of the signified and the signifier."
*&**REF. "Barthes": French literary theorist and philosopher, "Text": original manuscript upon which analysis is based. ***REF. "signified", "signifier". ***HEM. "REF.": How does something become a cultural code?
Denotation
Merriam-Webster Online defines 'Denotation' as:
Main Entry: de·no·ta·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌdē-nō-ˈtā-shən\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1532
1 : an act or process of denoting
2 : meaning; especially : a direct specific meaning as distinct from an implied or associated idea
3 a : a denoting term : name b : sign, indication
4 : the totality of things to which a term is applicable especially in logic — compare connotation
Main Entry: de·no·ta·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌdē-nō-ˈtā-shən\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1532
1 : an act or process of denoting
2 : meaning; especially : a direct specific meaning as distinct from an implied or associated idea
3 a : a denoting term : name b : sign, indication
4 : the totality of things to which a term is applicable especially in logic — compare connotation
Connotation
Merriam-Webster Online defines 'Connotation' as:
Main Entry: con·no·ta·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌkä-nə-ˈtā-shən\
Function: noun
Date: 1532
1 a : the suggesting of a meaning by a word apart from the thing it explicitly names or describes b : something suggested by a word or thing : implication
2 : the signification of something
3 : an essential property or group of properties of a thing named by a term in logic — compare denotation
Main Entry: con·no·ta·tion
Pronunciation: \ˌkä-nə-ˈtā-shən\
Function: noun
Date: 1532
1 a : the suggesting of a meaning by a word apart from the thing it explicitly names or describes b : something suggested by a word or thing : implication
2 : the signification of something
3 : an essential property or group of properties of a thing named by a term in logic — compare denotation
Starring the Star (1)
"*HER. "Starred": What does it mean to star a text? **ACT. "Starred": The pre-established action of starring a text. What do you do with a starred text? ***SEM. "Starred": Positive connotation of something celebrated, praised, glorified, investigated, explored."
*&**HER. "HER.", "ACT.", "SEM.": What does HER., ACT., and SEM. stand for? Why is it used? "What does it mean to star a text?", "What do you do with a starred text?": What is the answer? ***ACT.: "Positive connotation": Act of putting a positive connotation on something. What feelings do positive connotation's connote? ***REF. "Positive connotation": Connotations and denotations.
Signifier
Merriam-Webster Online defines 'Signifier' as:
Main Entry: sig·ni·fi·er
Pronunciation: \ˈsig-nə-ˌfī(-ə)r\
Function: noun
Date: 1532
1 : one that signifies
2 : a symbol, sound, or image (as a word) that represents an underlying concept or meaning — compare signified
Main Entry: sig·ni·fi·er
Pronunciation: \ˈsig-nə-ˌfī(-ə)r\
Function: noun
Date: 1532
1 : one that signifies
2 : a symbol, sound, or image (as a word) that represents an underlying concept or meaning — compare signified
Signified
Merriam-Webster Online defines 'Signified' as:
Main Entry: signified
Function: noun
Date: 1939
: a concept or meaning as distinguished from the sign through which it is communicated
Main Entry: signified
Function: noun
Date: 1939
: a concept or meaning as distinguished from the sign through which it is communicated
Starring the Text (7)
"...the commentator traces through the text certain zones of reading, in order to observe therein the migration of meanings, the outcropping of codes, the passage of citations."
*ACT. "traces": Commentator's action of tracing through the text. Just like the soothsayer that consults the imaginary rectangle he draws. Furthermore, the imaginary rectangle the soothsayer draws around each segment of the sky represents the different lexias of the original text that the commentator splits the text into, "observe": Just like the soothsayer who consults the imaginary rectangle, the commentator observes the text. **SEM. "migration, outcropping, passage": Reminiscent of the "flight of birds" in the previous lexia. Connotation of freedom and a logical order of events. ***SYM. Mobile characteristic of meanings and codes represented through a simile of codes and meanings as free birds. ****SYM. Once again, there is natural imagery. In this case, it is natural organisms, birds, that are used to describe meaning and the ability of starring a text to use these natural organisms and their patterns to find meaning.
Starring the Text (6)
"Like the soothsayer drawing on it with the tip of his staff an imaginary rectangle wherein to consult, according to certain principles, the flight of birds..."
*&**ACT. "drawing": Act of drawing an imaginary rectangle in the air, "consult": Act in which soothsayer interprets the flight of birds through the rectangle. What is the purpose of consulting the flight of birds? **SEM. "Soothsayer": A soothsayer is someone who tries to predict the future through personal, spiritual, or religious beliefs. The metaphor given by Barthes says that the readers who star texts are soothsayers, thus, there is positive connotation for starring texts. ***SYM. Antithesis between the real and the imaginary. In this case, however, the two are intersecting. More specifically, there is synthesis between the imaginary rectangle the soothsayer draws in the air with his solid, earthly staff.
Starring the Text (5)
"The text, in its mass, is comparable to a sky, at once flat and smooth, deep, without edges and without landmarks;"
*ACT. "comparable": comparative action between the original text and the sky. **&***SEM. "flat and smooth": Connotation of smoothness, and peace. Reminiscent of river imagery used previously, "deep, without edges and without landmarks": Connotation of mystery and something full of undiscovered meaning, waiting to be explored. ****SYM. Original text is once again compared to a natural entity. In this case, instead of a river, the text is compared to the sky, which, like the river, is described as very calm and explorable.
Starring the Text (4)
"The tutor signifier will be cut up into a series of brief contiguous fragments, which we shall call lexias, since they are units of reading."
*ACT. "cut up": Action involving cutting up original text. What is going to happen with cut up text? **HER. "lexias": What are lexias? Why give these units of reading a separate collective name? ***REF. "lexias": Origin is derived from the Greek term for 'word', lexis. Lexis refers to the lexicon that has lexical, instead of grammatical, meaning.
Starring the Text (3)
"...of which reading grasps only the smooth surface, imperceptibly soldered by the movement of sentences, the flowing discourse of narration, the “naturalness” of ordinary language:"
*&**ACT. "soldered": act of connecting sentences and ideas like act of soldering metal, "flowing": narration's ability to act like a flowing river. ***&****&*****SEM. "smooth", "flowing": connotation of smoothness and natural ebb and flow, "surface": negative connotation of missing what is underneath the surface, "imperceptibly": connotation of something hidden, something imperceptible. ******HEM. ""naturalness" of ordinary language": Is ordinary language and narration natural? Why does Barthe put in "naturalness" in quotes. Is it because he does not actually believe ordinary language is natural? Then what is? If Barthes' implications are taken into account, is the act of starring a text actually what is natural?*******SYM. Nature: Not only is ordinary language described in natural imagery and metaphor (image of the river flowing peacefully), starring a text is also described as happening through natural forces (image of earthquake breaking text into blocks of significance). ********SYM. Peace/Chaos: Connected to previous symbolic code, Barthes provides the reader with an antithesis between peace and chaos as he describes the chaotic ability of earthquakes to break text into segments, and the peaceful character of the river-like original text.
Starring the Text (2)
"…separating, in the manner of a minor earthquake, the blocks of signification..."
*ACT. "separating": act of breaking up the text into blocks of signification. **SEM. "minor earthquake", "blocks of signification": Assuming the metaphor given by Barthes, the minor earthquake caused by nature becomes what breaks up the text into blocks of signification. Text takes on natural connotation. ***REF. "signification": Refers to assumed knowledge of the signified and the signifier.
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