[Ben Carver]

I propose a reading group whose only text will be S/Z, by Roland Barthes. I’m looking at this as part of a project on the relation between conspiracy and literary criticism, but would hope that fellow readers would bring other enthusiasms to the group.

My suggested method is a fortnightly online meeting, here, on Thursday evenings in May and June (17 & 31 May, 14 & 28 June), from 8-9:30, CET (BST+1). I’m going to invite one person to post an introductory response to that week’s section of the book (on the Wednesday before), which will act as a starting point for our online comments and responses the following evening.

I’ll work out the details in the coming days, but if you are interested, please reply, and give me some idea of your interest in the text. If you would like to offer to initiate one of the meetings with the Wedneday evening post, please feel free. I may reserve the right to take the final meeting.

[Diane Reynolds]

Hi Ben,

I would be interested in this reading. First, Barthes has been recrossing my path here and there during the past few years–first, in a reprint of marvelous early essays from the 1950s when he was writing for a socialist publication, and most recently from reading Katie Briggs’s This Little Art about translating Barthes’s last lectures. In both cases, bookends to his career, he radiates a deep humanity that I find compelling. Also, I read Sarrasine about two years ago with the idea of then reading S/Z but, as if often the case, got swept up in other things, so this would be a great chance to get back to a text I’ve missed.

Diane Reynolds

[Ruth Yvonne Hsu]

Ben:

I’m interested in contributing constructively to this online reading group. The text of Barthes’s that I know best is Mythologies. I read S/Z years ago while surveying the topography of narrative theory in general. I’m gearing up to teach a couple of narrative-heavy courses in the fall semester and planning to forge ahead with a writing project this summer; doing a deep dive into S/Z while in the company of others interested in doing the same would be helpful.

Ruth Hsu

 

[Author]

Posts