This book focuses on some of the ways Barthes discusses the nature of his own writing. The first two chapters examine the key but ambiguous term of `derive' (`drift'), a word which raises questions about how exactly Barthes's writing develops across three decades, about the `scientific' legitimacy of his concepts, and about his own frequently fraught relation to the scientific discourses around him, especially psychoanalysis. Two typical discursive manoeuvres
that structure his writing, `naming' and `framing', are then shown to generate particular aesthetic effects which cause complications for some of his theoretical stances. Barthes's fascination for the idea that all writing is a kind of scribble, closer to the visual arts than to speech, is investigated
in depth, and his latent animus against speech as such is made manifest. The final chapter suggests that, for Barthes, `the real' can leave its mark on writing only as a disturbing, indeed traumatic trace.
- ISBN10 0198151713
- ISBN13 9780198151715
- Publish Date 24 September 1992
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Oxford University Press
- Imprint Clarendon Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 314
- Language English