Roland Barthe Applied to The Sopranos

When looking at the advertisement for the series finale of HBO's The Sopranos, according to Roland Barthe's essay, it would be most important for us to take into account the following: the linguistic meaning; the connotative meaning and the denotative meaning. First, there is the linguistic meaning. That is to say, the meaning of any text used. In the case of this advertisement, the text has both implicit and explicit meanings. The first text that you see, 'the final episodes- April 8, 9:00 pm' has a very explicit meaning and, as Barthe would say, the importance of this text is that it's there. Having been in the bigger font, you can tell that it has the more important message which is simply the 'what' and 'when' which viewers certainly need to know. However, Barthe's assumption about only the presence of the text counting is wrong when it comes to the second message which reads 'made in America.' Since it does not have an explicit meaning, it's presence is not the only thing that matters. This secondary text's phrasing also matters since it should be intriguing to viewers, especially, Sopranos fans.

Secondly, there is the connotative meaning. The connotative meaning, or connotation, is the subjective meaning that can be denied or accepted depending on who is doing the interpreting. Or, as Barthe says, 'the number of readings of the same lexia varies according to individuals.' One person, a Sopranos fan, could see this and know immediately what it was about- what the last episode's story might entail; where the climax would take place; etc. Whereas, a person unfamiliar with The Sopranos might see it and come up with a completely about what the episode might be about because he was giving to much significance to the wrong parts of the picture. For example, they might think that the Statue of Liberty had something to do with the episode or that the character shown might have more of a part than he does.

Finally, there is the denotative meaning. That is, the literal meaning of what's in the advertisement as a whole. The denotative meaning, according to Barthe, 'naturalizes the symbolic message.' That is to say, that, after taking in the denotative meaning, the connotative meaning simply follows. However, in the case of this poster, again, that assertion doesn't always apply since not everyone who sees it may not be a Sopranos fan. So, in the case of a non-Sopranos fan, whatever connotative meaning they might come up with would still make sense, providing that it was taken from the denotative meaning and everything in their connotative interpretation could be back up by the simple denotative meaning.