At the zero point of literature

At the zero point of literature ( Le Degré zéro de l'écriture ) is a literary theoretical work by the French poststructuralist and semioticist Roland Barthes from 1953. It was last published in 2006 in an anthology together with the essays Literature or History and Criticism and Truth in Suhrkamp Verlag .

content

classification

Barthes' work is seen as an answer to Sartre's essay What is literature? . In this, Sartre qualitatively differentiates between, on the one hand , committed , non-self-referential, narrative literature and, on the other hand, poetry that should be reserved solely for dealing with form and language. Barthes, however, makes it clear in his answer that this division is belied by all modern literature and the form is inevitably committed.

Language, style, spelling

To explain this, he adds the spelling to the generally recognized writing tools of the trade, language and style . The writer cannot avoid language as a “social object”, it surrounds him in his epoch, “it is less a stock of material than a [...] area of a structure.” The personal style of an author is also beyond his freedom and responsibility : it results from his experiences, impressions, experiences, in short: from his biography, which with him shapes his style. In both cases the following applies: the writer has no choice, because the language is universally social, the style connects him 'biologically' with this social structure.

The language

The language gets here for the contemporary author seemingly rigid synchronous state how the individual him even in Saussure experiences. The style refers to the author and is shaped by his vocabulary, his pictures and his way of speaking. Both belong to the "automatisms of his art, [...] he is the private part of his art, ascends to the mythical depth of the writer and unfolds outside of his responsibility." Saussure had excluded this idiolect from his 'basic questions', he felt but just to illustrate the social character of language.

The spelling

Barthes' third element, the spelling , grants and determines the freedom of the writer within the language. After the fall of the universal, classical spelling, he is forced to choose, forced to adopt an attitude by choosing a sub-area within the possibilities of expression, to get involved. Language and style are “natural” (in the biological sense), the spelling is “historical”: Barthes writes: “It means the relationship between the created and the society” as the “moral of form” Here for Barthes the choice begins, the ultimate Literature defines: The form means commitment and literary quality beyond all the content it carries . Since spellings cannot be taken from a fund, but are developed in the history of people as inner boundaries within the language area, their choice represents a "historical solidarity".

The speech

Barthes contrasts the spelling with the speech as a line that is "a sequence of empty signs, the sequence of which is important". He describes the spelling as "introverted and symbolic" and is directed against Sartre when he outlines the intellectual spelling with the words : "While an ideal free form of expression would never reveal my person, my own past and my freedom, the spelling I confide in is already an institution, [...] it gives me history, [...] it engages me without I need to say it. ”A comparison with speech shows that literary language does not differ from speech and is characterized by its syntagmatic structural character, while the spelling shows signs of the paradigm of non-linear unity.

expenditure

Le Degré zéro de l'écriture , Seuil, Paris, 1953.
At the zero point of literature , Claassen, Hamburg, 1959.
At the zero point of literature / literature or history / criticism and truth , Suhrkamp, Frankfurt / M. 2006, ISBN 3-518-12471-4

Web links

Xenia M. Lange: Reflections on Roland Barthes' structuralist and semiological work ( Memento from November 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 56 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ Sartre, Jean-Paul: What is literature? Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1958. Barthes describes the connection with Sartre's essay in his interview Réponses. Tel Quel , 47, p. 92
↑ At the zero point of literature, p. 13
↑ Am Nullpunkt der Literatur, pp. 14–15
^ At the zero point of literature, p. 18
↑ Am Nullpunkt der Literatur, p. 20
↑ ^a ^b At the zero point of literature, p. 25
↑ At the zero point of literature, p. 29

[1] Sartre, Jean-Paul: What is literature? Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1958. Barthes describes the connection with Sartre's essay in his interview Réponses. Tel Quel , 47, p. 92

[2] At the zero point of literature, p. 13

[3] Am Nullpunkt der Literatur, pp. 14–15

[4] At the zero point of literature, p. 18

[5] Am Nullpunkt der Literatur, p. 20

[A-6] At the zero point of literature, p. 25

[7] At the zero point of literature, p. 29