Roland Barthes and the "Affective Truths" of Autotheory

Abstract

L a Chambre claire is not only a book about photography, but also, perhaps more urgently, about how to write about it. In the beginning, Roland Barthes presents himself "ballotté entre deux langages, l'un expressif, l'autre critique" (794), wanting to leave the theoretical discourse from his past: "car chaque fois qu'y ayant un peu recouru, je sentais un langage consister, et de la sorte glisser à la réduction et à la réprimande, je le quittais doucement et je cherchais ailleurs: je me mettais à parler autrement. Mieux valait, une bonne fois pour toutes, retourner ma protestation de singularité en raison, et tenter de faire de 'l'antique souveraineté du moi' (Nietzsche) un principe heuristique" (795). The same heuristic principle guided his research at the Collège de France. In his inaugural lecture as Chair of Literary Semiology in 1977, Barthes provocatively stated that each year he would take a personal fantasy as the starting point of his research ("Leçon" 445). This research was to become part of a larger ethical project that he called, referencing Dante and Michelet, the vita nuova. This essay discusses methodological issues raised by Barthes's La Chambre claire within the context of his later work. It examines Barthes as a precursor of autotheory, an umbrella term applied to writing (and other cultural expressions) that combines reflections on art and theory with an exploration of intimate life.