Narrative Codes

There are five narrative codes, they can be open or closed. When a narrative tv/film  is closed it has no other ending, it can only be interpreted in one way. An example of a closed film would be something such as a detective kind of genre, this is usually because once a mystery has been solved there is no further story line. An example of a closed TV programme would be a children's episode. This is because children have short attention span and lose interest in a long running series. The endings will also most of the time be very predictable i.e the bad guy will never win. When a narrative TV/film is open it can be interpreted in more than one way and will not have a specific ending. Mr Smith gave us an example to make us visualise this better, picture a ball of string. The open narrative can be unravelled in many ways however the closed narrative has only one obvious way of being opened.

Number 1: Action code
This applies to any action that implies a further narrative action. For example, a gun-slinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this action will be.

Number 2: Enigma code

This refers to any element in a story that is not explained and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the audience, raising questions that demand explication

Number 3: The semantic code

Any element in a text that suggests a particular , often additional meaning by the way of connotation.

Number 4: The cultural code
Any element in a narrative that refers "to a science or a body of knowledge" In other words, the cultural codes tent to point to our shared knowledge about the way the world works.

Number 5: The symbolic
This is annoyingly difficult to explain. One will most likely understand this term better when studying binary opposites. (Levi Strauss argued that narrative structures have binary opposites. I.E good vs evil.