Chapter 8: Study Project on Reading Style and Image Closely

Close reading involves minute attention to what language says and what it suggests.  Think of a text as a multi-layered web, where all of the words connect in multiple ways with other words, structures, themes, and ideas.  Our task is to try and map all of this as a way of understanding the art of the story.  While we may not use Barthes' terminology of codes, we do understand that such codes, or systems, exist and that as readers, we understand them as we read without necessarily being conscious that we do so.  Part of the task of interpretation is to make conscious the processes of our reading—to investigate how stories say what they say and mean what they mean.

Below is a short passage from Balzac's "Sarrasine."  Look at each word and determine what it means (denotes) and what it might suggest—what other feelings or ideas the word brings up (connotes).  Make a list of words and note their various meanings

Sarrasine sought in Paris a refuge from the effects of a father's curse.  Having one of those strong wills that brook no obstacle, he obeyed the commands of his genius and entered Bouchardon's studio.  He worked all day, and in the evening went out to beg for his living.

Each noun and verb should be on your list and have both a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning.  Do you find a pattern to the ideas or feelings the words connote?  Let us look at one possible example.  In the first sentence occur the words "sought," "refuge," "effects," and "father's curse."

Word	Denotes	Connotes
sought	sought	implies a desperation or a seeking; combines with refuge as a phrase. Seems old-fashioned
refuge	shelter	protective place, escape; also seems old-fashioned
Paris	A city in France	A large cosmopolitan place, frequented by artists
effects	the results of another action	all of the social consequences of disapproval; the way the actions of others affect one
fathers curse	parental disapproval	especially vicious condemnation coming from the father; curse old-fashioned term

The combination of the words denotes an action—seeking refuge—taken in reaction to another action—a father's curse.  The connotations of the words, however, import a certain sense of desperation and seriousness.  In addition, they seem old-fashioned; this sense of oldness increases their drama and sense of urgency.  Now, of course, these words are old-fashioned since the story is from the 19^th century, but consider also the way the sentence itself is structured.  The effects—seeking shelter—precede the cause—the father's curse—that has the effect of emphasizing the cause.  The fact that this is a father's curse also increases the drama of the situation, especially as the son wishes to be an artist.

Continue your analysis in this way, considering how the next two sentences build upon, elaborate, or perhaps contradict the first.

Note how you, like Barthes, come up with different categories of meaning, especially in the various ways words suggest or connote things.  We might call those categories "codes."  In the example above, there are three different codes:

1. a code of action or cause/effect contained primarily in the words literal meanings or denotations
2. a code of emphasis or seriousness contained in the words' connotations
3. a code of history, also connoted, in which some words seem old-fashioned

If we continue our analysis and put these codes together, we might arrive at systems in the text.  In this brief passage, we might see the ways art is linked with the son, freedom, rebellion, strength, refuge, and the big city, while the father is linked to wealth, disapproval, and someplace outside of the city.

Clearly this process could continue forever.  It might take several pages to map out all of the meanings and associations for the three sentences above.  The purpose of this kind of reading is to show what raw materials a text uses to make meaning—to understand how language and meaning import associations and at the same form systems unique to the story.

As you have done above, semioticians look closely at language, the codes from which it comes, and the systems it forms in individual stories as a way of understanding how meaning is made.  This is a particularly close kind of reading, but any kind of close reading is the foundation of the analysis and interpretation of literature.