Steve’s Stuff

In From Work to Text, Barthes provides a very compact summary of the topics explored in S/Z (1970): namely, the idea of an open text with, not simply multiple possible meanings, but a simultaneous multiplicity of meanings. What Barthes referred to in S/Z as the “readerly text” becomes the Work and what was referred to as the “writerly text” now becomes the Text. Where the Work is a physical object that one can hold in three dimensional space, the Text is a living, changing, flow of signs that defy hermeneutic treatment. If in 2007

One interesting aspect of Barthes writing is the requirement of a meta-language to describe his ideas. He writes about the slippage and play of signification in the Text, but when he describes it in his flowing prose, he cannot afford to engage this play without sacrificing the clarity and direction of his thesis. The same is true of Derrida who is sharply critical of the Western supposition of logocentricity—he must resort to a meta-language in order to communicate concepts that he wishes to be interpreted in a very specific, “correct” manner. I can appreciate the difficulty of the situation and I forgive Barthes for being somewhat hypocritical in this way, but I wonder what a self-descriptive writerly text would look like. This relates back to the criticism of postmodern thinking in that if one calls for the resistance of absolute meaning, shouldn’t the reader also resist the meaning of the call to resist absolute meaning?

This is why Deleuze is so remarkable. His writing reflects his rhizomatous network of philosophical concepts. He encourages the reader to enter A Thousand Plateaus from any chapter, laughing in the face of the West’s obsession with teleological reasoning. Deleuze goes as far as to avoid absolute definitions of his many concepts (e.g. becoming, deterritorialization, the refrain) thereby sacrificing accessibility for a dedication to his ideas. This is a major sacrifice for any philosopher for, despite what some may claim, they surely wish to be understood (Lacan notwithstanding). Deleuze leaves the reader no choice but to jump right in and start because a definition of one concept always involves at least one of his other concepts.

Returning to Barthes, his reliance on meta-language is entirely forgivable because his ideas are so wonderfully stated. Even if the abjuration of logocentricity seems, in 2007, axiomatic, his statements of the ideas are clear, succinct, accessible, and useful. From Work to Text is nearly perfect as an introduction to the writerly and readerly text. If one wishes to understand this concept in greater detail and see it in practice, S/Z is waiting.