Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/1942/30619
Title: | 'A Country Free by Default’: Barthes and the Atmospheric Experience of Literature | Authors: | PINT, Kris | Issue Date: | 2020 | Publisher: | Oxford University Press | Source: | Knight, Diana (Ed.). Interdisciplinary Barthes, The British Academy, p. 165 -179 | Series/Report: | Proceedings of the British Academy | Series/Report no.: | 228 | Abstract: | In the last decade of his life, Barthes increasingly turned to classical literature for the expression of what he called 'minimal existence'. He found an ideal way to access this experience in literary descriptions of the nuances of the weather, le temps qu'il fait. In these passages, the virtual space of literature opens up the existential space of the experiencing body, by providing a discourse to explore atmospheric conditions. As the experience of the atmosphere is cultural, a form of education is needed in order fully to appreciate it. It was this education Barthes found in the abandoned, untimely field of classical literature: 'a country free by default'. Barthes's literary explorations of the weather can be understood as a crucial part of the ethical project he developed at the Collège de France. Barthes's 'active semiology' urges us to consider literature as a personal, intimate 'guide de vie', and to understand literary semiology not only as a contribution to a field of knowledge, but also to a field of experience. The sensation and expression of atmospheric conditions becomes an unexpected way to defend the existential and critical value of literature in our contemporary, increasingly virtualised information society. | Document URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1942/30619 | ISBN: | 9780197266670 | Category: | C1 | Type: | Proceedings Paper | Validations: | vabb 2022 |
Appears in Collections: | Research publications |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Pint - A country free by default.Barthes and the Atmospheric Experience of Literature.pdf Restricted Access | Peer-reviewed author version | 266.59 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open Request a copy |
Page view(s)
64
checked on Sep 7, 2022
Download(s)
6
checked on Sep 7, 2022
Google ScholarTM
Check
Altmetric
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.