Posts Tagged ‘Barthes’

NEW MEDIA & LITERATURE: Writerly/Readerly

Thursday, September 16th, 2004


Before I tackle the “Writerly/Readerly” (Roland Barthes, S/Z) question I raised earlier, I found this piece of raw poetry I wrote and posted here back on February 6th, 2004, that must have reflected my feelings at the time in sorting through Contemporay Fiction. It was a gut reaction (and possibly, rebellion) to efforts to both accept a reader’s input as a writer, and acknowledgement of the readerly/writerly form without knowing it at the time:

“Reader vs. Writer”

I need to be
amongst the leaves
of horrid poetry;
for great is good
no doubt
to also put
the fire out.

I need to read
the prose that’s
dozing to the mind.
with brevity
not levity that stirs
the evil imps

Of illusion
and persuasion
and delusion
and evasion
until I lie there–
a muddled green and
huddled yellow
pile of words.

NEW MEDIA & LITERATURE: The NEW Version of Author vs. Writer

Monday, September 13th, 2004


Or maybe it’s not so new, since an essay on the subject, S/Z by French critic Roland Barthes that was used in class today to help provide one definition was written in 1970. We covered his thoughts on writerly versus readerly, the style, intent and purpose used in a creative effort by a writer versus an author.

Let me digress a moment from the class discussion in which I dang near made a fool of myself but luckily held back (oh, us passionate artististes!) to throw in a line from S/Z here:

“Barthes suggest that text is, ‘multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash… a text’s unity lies not in its origin, but in its destination.” Thus the reader “produces” a text on his or her own terms, forging meanings from “what has already been read, seen, done, lived, assuming many different, and possibly contradictory roles as a text is read. This way, the reader is ‘no longer the consumer but the producer of the text’ (S/Z).” (http://www.geneseo.edu/~bicket/panop/author_B.htm#BARTHES).

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