EXERCISE / TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

CHOOSE ONE OF THESE TEXTS (CERVANTES, DICKENS, J. AUSTEN) AND OFFER

A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF IT THROUGH R.BARTHES´MODEL.

(2- 3 PAGES) HAND IT IN PRINTED FORM ON THE 17TH OF APRIL

“En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un
hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.”

M. de Cervantes, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605)

“In a village in la Mancha,  whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago,
one of those who keeps a lance on the rack, an old leather shield, a skinny nag and a swift grey-
hound. “

M. de Cervantes, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605)

(translation by Edith Grossman, 2003)

Barthes’Model attempts to provide a scientific method to carry out a scientific and loyal
analysis of any literary written text. This model, however, may not be 100% reliable since its
effectiveness and results may depend on several factors, such as the own capacity and judgment of
the person doing the analysis to identify the different lexias. Having said that, the aim of this
exercise is to try to analyze El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605) according to
Barthes’ Model in the most objective way in order to provide a firmer basis to work on to later on
apply personal opinions.

To start to analyze this excerpt, it is necessary to contextualize what is considered by some

one of the greatest piece of Spanish literature in history. The novel was written in 1605, in a
moment of transition between two artistic movements, which were Renaissance and Baroque
period. Renaissance was portrayed in Spanish literature with the recurrence of the term “Carpe
Diem”, optimism and anthropocentrism, among other. On the other hand, the Baroque period was
characterized for expressing fear of death, pessimism and theocentrism. These may or may not be
vital elements to take into account when analyzing the fragment.
The methodology to carry out this exercise will consist of dividing the passage in Lexias to
afterwards apply Barthe’s method involving the different codes, being these the Code of question or
enigmas (hermeneutic), the Code of actions or acts performed (proairetic), the Code of signs in the
sequence (semic code), the Code of symbols, or of the elements that are transmitted through
metaphors. (Sexuality, power, class, economy,…) and the Cultural code: references to dominant
cultural concepts. (Science, culture, forms of behaviour, rituals, etc). The different Lexias identified
to carry out the suitable analysis are: “In a village in la Mancha”(1)/ “whose name” (2) / “I do not
care to remember” (3) / “a gentleman lived not long ago” (4) / “one of those who keeps a lance on
the rack” (5) / “an old leather shield” (6) / “a skinny nag and a swift greyhound” (7).

(1) “In a village in la Mancha” : Here the code of enigmas may be the most significant one. The
code of enigma would make us question what village is that? The code of action is not needed
since there is no action, no verb. The Cultural Code, however, holds big importance as it is
mentioned “La Mancha” making reference to Castilla La Mancha, which is a region of Spain
known for its flat extension.
(2) “whose name” : again here the code of enigma takes part in the process of analyzing. Which
name does the speaker mean?
(3) “I do not care to remember” : here, the code of enigma has to be applied again. This code makes
us wonder, who is “I”? Who is the speaker? Also, it makes us ask why does the author not care
to remember the name of this place? The code of action here identifies two different
happenings, the act of not caring and the act of remembering. Lastly, the cultural code here
would emphasize the importance of not caring to remember, why does the author not care? Is it
because he is from a more important place or origin?
(4) “a gentleman lived not long ago” : the code of enigmas here would provide the following
questions: who is that gentleman? lived? So is that gentleman dead? And also not long ago, but
when ? The Code of acts performed would highlight the act of living, which for what we are
told, has already finished when the author is writing the book. The Code of Symbols here takes
the word gentleman to indicate the social class of the man, which for what we can read, he is
from a higher-mid class at least.
(5) “one of those who keeps a lance on the rack”: the codes that can be applied here is the code of
question, the code of symbols, the cultural code and the code of action. The code of question
here makes us wonder what “those” means here. Is the gentleman alike other men? The code of
symbols brings up the same question, what does those mean here? It may be making reference
to his social status or to his job. The code of action here stands for the fact of keeping the lance
in a rack. Finally, the code of culture here emphasizes the fact of having such kind of items,
therefore, making us think that the gentleman is a knight or a warrior.
(6) “an old leather shield”: in this lexia however, we have no code of action since there is no verb.
On the other hand, the symbol code and the question one have their role here. The symbol code
and the question code are used to make reference to the old shield. Why would a gentleman
with certain social status have an old leather shield instead of a new one or more resistant? An
old leather shield would be something characteristic from a lower-mid class individual.
(7) “a skinny nag and a swift greyhound”: here, the code of enigmas brings up the following
questions: why does a gentleman have a skinny nag? Shouldn’t it be better fed taking into
account the social class that the author attributes to the gentleman? Why does he have these
animals for? Here, the code of symbols suggests that this gentleman is not as rich as he may
initially seem, as he has unfed animals. The greyhound, nevertheless, suggests that the man is
certainly rich because of the following suggested by the cultural code. The cultural code here
stands for the fact of having a nag and a greyhound. The nag was used to carry goods from one
place to another and the hound was considered a high-valued dog because of its hunting skills.
Therefore, the readers here might think? Is the gentleman really linked to these guilds?

To conclude, it may be said that books as descriptive as this, lack a bit of action in some excerpts
since their authors focus more on providing detailed descriptions of the people, animals, places and
items present and try to transmit an image with full meaning, including social, cultural and political
features. It is therefore, that these kind of books present a sort of irony, since they provide scenes
with lots of details although the code that is more implemented is the Code of question.