HELP PLEASE! What the Dickens does Barthes mean by TEXT?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Sprog announced her being 'fazed' by this ..and asked for help ...i have read at least twice, and could not stand another go, it seems impenetrable and meaningless or a reification of the possibilities of language using minds .... i am at a loss ...

what does he mean by TEXT?

[vinteuil]

ah, well if you're going to take Barthes 'seriously' rather than as 'entertainment' - then there is no hope for you...


yrs ludically

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i can take him or leave him any which way including loose but sprog has an essay to write! and yup no hope!

..and as a plaything it is not that entertaining really and as entertainment it is not at all playful ...it makes me glassy eyed and beady with perspiration

[vinteuil]

aka - my feelings go out fr yr sprog. I think there is a kind of French writing which is absolutely untranslatable into English. Often to be found in French music criticism - whether reviews, record sleeves, or more weighty stuff - if you try to put it into decent intelligible English - it just won't wash. There is a French aesthetic rhetoric which is sui generis - it's a soap bubble that just-about holds together if you don't prod it too hard - but once you ask - but what does it actually MEAN? - it disappears with a pluf! that makes your eyes smart...

[Caliban]

aka - my feelings go out fr yr sprog. I think there is a kind of French writing which is absolutely untranslatable into English. Often to be found in French music criticism - whether reviews, record sleeves, or more weighty stuff - if you try to put it into decent intelligible English - it just won't wash. There is a French aesthetic rhetoric which is sui generis - it's a soap bubble that just-about holds together if you don't prod it too hard - but once you ask - but what does it actually MEAN? - it disappears with a pluf! that makes your eyes smart...

Gosh that's well put, vints! I've often thought the same with a or even a without being able to put it into words.

Scant help to Ms Jazbo though!!

Oh! i just saw the link you gave is a translation by Stephen Heath... i know Stephen, he's a fellow at my old college. I might have his email address... We could ask him what the hell it's all about!

When's her essay due???

[vinteuil]

Stephen Heath... i know Stephen, he's a fellow at my old college.

oh, Cambridge - yes, Caliberman, I suppose it was to be expected that you were from the other place,,,

[Caliban]

oh, Cambridge - yes, Caliberman, I suppose it was to be expected that you were from the other place,,,

As opposed to Thames Valley Poly? Your alma, vints?

[Anna]

As opposed to Thames Valley Poly? Your alma, vints?

I am the product of a Poly. Oh Lordy, Lordy, don't it show? <hangs head in despair> and visulaliises the Bullingham Club

[vinteuil]

Calipers - what with "a most complex and interesting cast of mind, M Vinteuil" - what else wd you expect

[Eudaimonia]

Here's a stab at it:

By "Text" he means both the actual writing and what the observer/reader brings to it-- not only in terms of understanding the totality of the political/historical/economic context in which it was written, but the subjective experience of the reader and his political/historical/economic context-- as well as that of the language itself. As he said elsewhere, "text is a tissue [or fabric] of quotations drawn from innumerable centers of culture," rather than from the individual experience of the author.

In a nutshell, every piece of writing contains multiple layers and meanings, none of which should be privileged over the rest, and every time we read the work, we recreate it anew.

V: cop-out much?