S/Z. af Roland Barthes (Bog)

The linguistic distillation of Barthes' system of semiology in which the Balzac novella "Sarrasine" is dissected to uncover layers of meanings and interpretations. Barthes' interpretation of language and meaning lies within the 20th-century structuralist mode, similar to that of Levi-Strauss.

S/Z is the linguistic distillation of Barthesa s system of semiology, a science of signs and symbols, in which Balzaca s novella, Sarrasine, is dissected semantically to uncover layers of hidden meaning.S/Z, published in 1970, is Roland Barthes' structural analysis of "Sarrasine", the short story by Honoré de Balzac. Barthes methodically moves through the text of the story, denoting where and how different codes of meaning function. Barthes' study had a major impact on literary criticism and is historically located at the crossroads of structuralism and post-structuralism.Barthes's analysis is influenced by the structuralist linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure; both Barthes and Saussure aim to explore and demystify the link between a sign and its meaning. However, Barthes moves beyond structuralism, criticizing narratology's tendency to establish the overall system out of which all individual narratives are created, a practice that makes the text lose its specificity (différance) (I).

Barthes employs five specific "codes" that thematically, semiotically/semiologically, and otherwise make a literary text reflect structures that are interwoven, but not in a definite way that closes the meaning of the text (XII). Barthes insists on the (different degrees of) plurality of a text — a plurality that should not be reduced by any privileged interpretation. He also flags the way in which the reader is an active producer of interpretations of the text, rather than a passive consumer. (II).structures until they begin to break down, a symbolic collapse that is a key part of the pleasures of the text.

Cultural Code: the background knowledge of the text

The cultural code is constituted by the points at which the text refers to common bodies of knowledge. These might be agreed, shared knowledge (the real existence of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré) or an assertion of axiomatic truths (the assertion in the first sentence that all men daydream at parties, no matter how lively the party is). He calls the latter a 'gnomic code'.The five codes together constitute a way of interpreting the text which suggests that textuality is interpretive; that the codes are not superimposed upon the text, but rather approximate something intrinsic to the text. The analogy Barthes uses to clarify the relationship of codes to text is to the relationship between a performance and the commentary that can be heard off-stage. In the “stereographic space” created by the codes, each code becomes associated with a voice. To the proairetic code Barthes assigns the Voice of Empirics; to the semic the Voice of the Person; to the cultural the Voice of Science; to the hermeneutic the Voice of Truth; and to the symbolic the Voice of Symbol

Barthes endeavours to set up a primary structure of character relations in "Sarrasine" along the lines of gender. However, he subsequently defines the characters not in relation to biological gender, but rather along what he calls the “axis of castration.” The initial categorisation of the characters in phallic terms (the men who are the phallus, the women who have the phallus, and the ambiguous group of the androgynous and the castrated) gives way to the division he later constructs between the castrated and castrating, the passive and active. Furthermore, Barthes’ structuralist analysis exposes the fact that Balzac’s text has multiple signifiers that do not refer to one fixed signified. For example, Barthes is fascinated by the nuance of the double entendre, which most clearly fractures the traditional conception of signification: this play on words proffers two distinct and incompatible meanings that must be entertained simultaneously by the reader. The title S/Z refers to the clash between the ‘S’ of ‘Sarrasine,’ the male protagonist of the work, and the ‘Z’ of ‘Zambinella,’ the castrato with whom Sarrasine falls in love. Sarrasine is an artist who, functioning under the assumption that all beauty is feminine, regards Zambinella as the epitome of beauty, and therefore as the paradigm of femininity. Sarrasine’s Pygmalion-like sculpted image of the “female” La Zambinella accordingly represents the “complete woman.” This “masterpiece,” however, is highly problematic given its original starting point as a male body — and its refashioning into a female one through the psychological projections and artistic expertise of a man. What ultimately grounds the text is the fundamental destabilisation caused by Zambinella’s anatomy, which is perceived by Sarrasine as masterpiece, origin, and referent: in Zambinella, therefore, lies Sarrasine’s own potential for castration.

Titel: S/Z.

Forfatter: Roland Barthes

Forlag: Blackwell

Udgivelsesår: 1990

Sider: 271

Sprog: Engelsk

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