Heinrich Heine’s ‘Die Lorelei’: A Roland Barthes’ Semiotic Perspective

Abstract

This article explores Die Lorelei by Heinrich Heine from the perspective of Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory and focuses on the poem as a system of signs, analysed through Barthes’ stages of signification, including denotative meaning, mythological signification, and the naturalization of ideology. The aims of the article are to describe (1) the identification of signs at the denotative level, (2) mythological analysis, and (3) how the process of naturalization operates in Heinrich Heine’s poem Die Lorelei. The study employs a qualitative descriptive approach using this approach.

The findings indicate that Die Lorelei constructs meaning through a mechanism of double signification, as theorized by Barthes. Signs at the primary level function as signifiers within the mythological system, which subsequently naturalizes particular meanings through poetic narrative and symbolism. Therefore, the text does not merely represent myth, but actively operates myth as an ideological system of meaning.