Roland Barthes’ View on Writing in Writing Degree Zero

ZOU QINGQING

【Abstract】Roland Barthes is one of the most intelligent thinkers in France and Writing Degree Zero is Barthes first book of literary criticism. This paper will focus on the relation between language， style and writing for a better understanding of Barthes zero-degree writing.

【Key words】Roland Barthes； Writing Degree Zero； zero-degree writing

【作者簡介】Zou Qingqing， School of Foreign Languages Shen Zhen University.

1. Introduction

It is acknowledged that Roland Barthes was one of the most intelligent and influential literary critics of France. Writing Degree Zero is Barthes first creation about literary criticism， and it is also the basis of his entire academic thinking. This book is divided into two parts. In Part One Barthes firstly gave a definition of writing according to his own opinions and then distinguished different writings concerning politics， novel and poetry. In Part Two， Barthes illustrates the development of writing. As he says， writing “was first the object of a gaze， then of creative action， finally of murder， and has reached in our time a last metamorphosis， absence” （Barthes 5）. Then， he calls for a new “colorless， zero-degree writing” （Barthes 88）.

Writing Degree Zero is a simple imitation and supplement of Sartres “What is Literature”. As we all know， Sartre is a representative of existentialism and he claimed that writers should bear their ethic responsibility in “What is Literature”. In Writing Degree Zero， Barthes suggests that Sartre put too much emphasis on the intervening function of author， which means a disaster for the freedom of creation. Therefore， Barthes promotes the notion of zero-degree， neutral， colorless writing， which means that writing should be pure and innocent without any ideological pollution， as a different way of literary language.

2. Barthes View on Writing

Barthes view on writing has made a great contribution to interpret the relationship between language， style and writing. Therefore， its safe to peep Barthes overall opinions of writing from the understanding of the three.

2.1 Language and style

As Barthes says， language “enfolds the whole of literary creation much as the earth， the sky and the line where they meet outline a familiar habitat for mankind. It is not so much a stock of materials as a horizon， which implies both a boundary and a perspective” （Barthes 9）. In this way， a language is like a horizontal line which provides a setting of regulations and all writers of a certain era follow together. It sets up rules and boundaries and it is also a negative restriction from the perspective of history and society.

As for style， Barthes thinks it is closely related to the authors personal experience. Style is almost beyond literature， as he says， “under the name of style a self-sufficient language is evolved which has its roots only in the depths of the authors personal and secret mythology” （Barthes 10）. Truly， style forms over a long period and secretly lies in the writers heart. It is just like a beautiful shadow dancing with the letter and a ghost haunting in readers mind. Style is a product of passion and it is reflected as the token of writing. Barthes also mentions that style “has a vertical dimension” （Barthes 11） because it plunges into the deepest part of ones memory and achieves its opacity from a certain experience of matter.

Here are two lines now. language is the horizontal line while style is the vertical line， which map out two axes perpendicular to each other. “The language functions negatively， as the initial limit of the possible， style is a Necessity which binds the writers humor to his form of expression. In the former， he finds a familiar History， in the latter， a familiar personal past” （Barthes 13）. This is an impressive analysis where complex and abstract literary problems become a mathematics pattern. Coincidentally， this idea coincides with Saussures point of view， who made difference between “langue” and “parole” while Barthes made a distinguish between language and style and put them at the opposite ends of literature.

2.2 Writing

Language and style are the natural result of history and personal experience. Author cannot change them arbitrarily. So how do writers manifest their subjectivity？ According to Barthes， it owes to the room between a language and a style， for another “formal reality： writing” （Barthes 13）. In Barthes mind， writing is an activity where writer give birth to a text by taking all his life experiences to meet social history through active choice. It is feasible to use an activity in daily life to clarify the relationship between language， style and writing， that is clothes matching. The horizontal line is all kinds of “clothes” while the vertical line is the “dressing style”. Between them， there is a space for “wearing”. When people dress， they do pick clothes that not only match the aesthetics of the public but also accord with their own style.

2.3 Zero degree of writing

Faced with language and style， writing have to make choice and take pressure. In order to make themselves more prominent， language and style contend for the writing all the time and also persuade the writer to incline towards them. Barthes knows the dilemma of writing， so he proposes that writing should have its own rights without the oppression of language and style， and stand in a neutral position to express opinions. Although Barthes knows writing is compromise between freedom and remembrance， he still hopes there will be zero degree of writing whose aim is not to eliminate the connotation and value of the work， but to get rid of the pressure from language and style， and the direct intervention by author.

Barthes takes “preterite” and “third person in novel” as examples. Preterite is a tense in French that objectively describes past actions. Barthes feels pity that preterite is abolished in spoken French because it signifies the presence of Art and reduces reality to abstract. The third person supplies its readers with the security born of a credible fabrication which is yet constantly held up as false. Camus Outsider was taken as the ideal work featured with a style of “absence”. In Outsider， writing is reduced to “a sort of negative mood in which the social or mythical characters of a language are abolished in favor of a neutral and inert state of form” （Barthes 77）.

In short， Barthes zero degree of writing is a colorless writing， a neutral writing between language and style. By taking “preterite”， “third person in novel” and Camus Outsider as examples， Barthes clearly explained his concept of zero-degree writing and also his opinions on ideal writing.

3. Conclusion

On the whole， Barthes presents his writing view in Writing Degree Zero. He draws a Rectangular Coordinate from three factors： language， style， and writing. Language is the horizontal axis which represents the tradition and social function of literature. Style is the horizontal axis which reflects authors inner heart and emotions. The area between language and style is writing which means author writes texts with their own feature to meets requirements of history. Facing with pressures from social history and personal style， writing is at risk of getting lost. In this regard， Barthes advocates a colorless writing， which is free from all constraints， as a new mode of literary writing.

References：

[1]Barthes，Roland（1967）.Writing Degree Zero.Translated by Annette Lavers；Colin Smith.London：Jonathan Cape.