Beyond Barthes: analysing texts of various forms and genres

Abstract

The essays written by the author's team of students of the Institute of Philosophy of St. Petersburg State University are offered. They present attempts to analyze various cultural texts: sculptural (monument to D. Trezzini), musical (symphony No. 5 by L. Beethoven), artistic (story by E. Poe) and philosophical text ("The Activity of Structuralism") from the point of view of Roland Barthes. The basic principle is an attempt to break texts into fragments and extract from them the codes described by the French structuralist in his work S/Z. In their experiments, the students show that Barthes' approach to identifying hermeneutical, proairetic, semantic, symbolic and cultural codes can be applied not only to a work of fiction, but also to other literary genres and even works of other types and forms. The authors show the universality of the approach and the possibility of expanding it to further comprehend the meanings of culture. The results of direct work with texts logically conclude with reflections on intertextuality in music, which makes this kind of analysis possible.