Pleasure Of Text Research Articles

Entre o neutro e o Grau zero da Escritura: A utopia da linguagem em Roland Barthes

O presente artigo tem como objetivo discutir a concepção da utopia de linguagem em Roland Barthes, bem como sua relação com a noção de Grau zero e Neutro, noções que fazem referência a fenômenos linguísticos que rompem com a estrutura paradigmática e binária da língua. Para tanto, a reflexão sobre a utopia da linguagem em Roland Barthes busca compreender em que medida o autor francês entende forma como valor, vinculando a seu projeto estético uma dimensão ética e política. Nesse percurso, discute-se como Barthes compreende a utopia da linguagem enquanto possibilidade de resistência ao caráter fascista da língua em O grau zero da escrita, O prazer do texto, O rumor da língua, O neutro e Aula. Além disso, comenta-se as relações de sentido possíveis feitas entre O grau zero da escritura e O neutro à luz de comentadores da obra barthesiana que estudam a concepção de linguagem proposta por Barthes, a saber: Jean-Claude Milner, Bernard Comment, Rodrigo Fontanari e Leda Tenório da Mota.

BARTHES E MUSIL, COMO VIVER JUNTO: AS TABELAS LITERÁRIAS DE GONÇALO M. TAVARES

Esta comunicação apresenta uma análise de Roland Barthes e Robert Musil (2004), do escritor português Gonçalo M. Tavares. Trata-se de um texto literário peculiar, disposto em forma de planilhas, que o autor denomina “tabelas literárias”. Busco mostrar como Tavares faz viver Roland Barthes para além das citações e referências ao autor francês. Para tanto, proponho uma leitura do texto à imagem invertida da “leitura drogada” de Sarrasine, de Balzac, que Barthes realizou num seminário entre 1967 e 1969 e que resultou no livro S/Z, de 1970. Busco também relacionar as “tabelas literárias” à ideia de “cálculo de prazer” contida no estudo de Barthes sobre a obra de Charles Fourier em Sade, Fourier, Loyola (1971). A proposta desta comunicação é aproximar as “tabelas literárias” de Tavares – um dispositivo de exatidão que emoldura um texto poético e fragmentário – ao movimento diacrônico que faz a própria obra de Barthes, partindo do entusiasmo com o formalismo nos anos 50 e 60 em direção ao prazer do Texto nos anos 70.

Using Message Form to Stimulate Conversations: The Case of Tropes

The use of tropes (e.g., metaphors, ellipsis) in messages from health mass media campaigns may spark conversations. Tropes require additional cognitive elaboration to arrive at the intended interpretation, thereby providing the audience with ‘‘the pleasure of text.’’ This characteristic makes them useful for conversations in which ads are used to demonstrate one’s interpretation abilities or to strengthen group identity through a shared appreciation of ads. Tropes can thus stimulate people to think and talk about information they might otherwise ignore. As a result, this information is primed, increasing the chance that it will influence relevant behavior. At the same time, the use of tropes may have undesirable side effects, such as yielding incomprehension or misunderstanding of the message’s meaning. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.01332.x Since 1999, an organization called loveLife has been running large-scale campaigns in South Africa aiming to reduce the rate of HIV infection among adolescents. The campaign’s tagline, ‘‘talk about it,’’ refers to the campaign’s goal to stimulate conversations among teenagers on issues pertaining to sexual health. A prominent part of the campaign is constituted by billboards that are used all over the country, displaying slogans such as ‘‘No until we know’’ and ‘‘If it’s not just me, you’re not for me.’’ These slogans present beliefs that the target audience is already familiar with, respectively, ‘‘sexual partners should know each other’s HIV status’’ and ‘‘polygamy increases the chances of HIV infection,’’ in a nonobvious way. One of loveLife’s campaign managers explained this strategy of using elliptical messages by stating that ‘‘we want people to think about our posters’’ and ‘‘we will get people to wonder. This creates conversation between parents and children, dialogue between peers. That is exactly what we want to achieve, that people talk about HIV/AIDS and sex’’ (Hollemans, 2005). Apparently, the

Leitura, texto, intertextualidade, paródia

This paper develops a reflection on the notions of text and intertextuality based on some works by Julia Kristeva ( Desire in Language and Revolution in Poetic Language ) and, mainly, by Roland Barthes ( The Rustle of Language, Theory of Text and Pleasure of Text ). Emphasizing the role of reading according to these notions, this reflection allows the reconsideration of criticism and theorization (instead of investigation of text, they are, also, texts). One possibility engendered by this reconsideration and which is developed in this paper is the distinction between two ways of textual interaction, which, in spite of many differences, are commonly considered similar: intertextuality and parody

Who Is Afraid of the Canon?

tion of homophones: and cannon, organizers of this forum sought, no doubt, to uncover power politics underlying intense debate on educational ideology in recent years. The word canon as it is commonly used legislates knowledge and draws clear dividing lines between categories of good and bad, worthy and worthless, we and them, masters and subaltern. Disregarding boundaries of time, space and nation-state, the Canon connects a broad array of writers, from Plato to Sartre, Homer to James Joyce, Shakespeare to Beckett, Montaigne to Camus, Rabelais to Dostoevski as members of a same family. Various lists of great books are drawn by zealous spirits to celebrate and record life of a civilization. Betraying an essentialist notion of culture, makers of these lists reveal less about significance and humanistic value of works they exhibit than about their own fears and cultural anxieties. A misplaced faith in pedagogical efficacy of coercion characterizes these efforts to commodify knowledge. The logic is not dictated by aesthetic concerns or pleasure of text. Rather it responds to a single-minded imperative: to legitimize purported authority of Christian West. The term Western Canon is overdetermined expression of this already axiomatic logic.