# Roland Barthes (2005). *The Neutral: Lecture Course at the Collège De France (1977-1978)*. : Columbia University Press. > [!INFO] > Type:: [[]] > Title:: The Neutral: Lecture Course at the Collège De France (1977-1978) > Author(s): [[Roland Barthes]] > Year:: 2005 > Tags:: > DOI:: > Citekey:: barthes_neutral_2005 > ZoteroURI:: [Open in Zotero: The Neutral: Lecture Course at the Collège De France (1977-1978)](zotero://select/items/@barthes_neutral_2005) > ReviewedDate:: [[2023-12-01]] ## Citation ```latex [@barthes_neutral_2005] ``` ## Related ```dataview TABLE file.aliases AS "Title" FROM [[@barthes_neutral_2005]] and -"Plans" and -"resources" ``` ## Summary - ## Annotation ### Introduction In the midst of tense research and thinking, critical reflection often causes questions about the method and ethics of the research. Endless doubts and suspicions. I go back to Roland Barthes to relax. His kindness and warmth are delivered through his text and novelistic or diaristic writing. His text told me to ‘relax and float’. Sadly, the Texts I started reading were his last remains in the lecture theatre. It is also the sadness and strength that cope with sadness. Barthes (1915-1980) was one of the renowned French philosophers, semioticians, and literary theorists. One of his books, Methodologies, was on my graduate’s reading list. Thus, his name and his early work were familiar to me in my research. However, when I carefully recollect his theories and concepts, I found it difficult to distinguish his own and other French philosophers. How odd it is. Despite his fame for philosophical achievements, I barely know his ideas. ![[BARTHES-neutral.pdf]] ## Context of Neutral 2020년에 들어서 reading on New Barthes started based on his three lecture series, How to Live Together, The Neutral, and The Preparation of the Novel.  When I traced him again was the moment I realised that the sensation of floating might be related to the concept or idea (or nuances) of Neutral. For Barthes, this idea of Neutral started from his another text _Degree Zero_, which desired of literacy Utopia. 최근 들어서 2010년대에 들어서 바르트의 죽음 후 글들이 출판되고 있으며 "it has called for reconsideration”"Badmington, 2020, p. 65" 새롭게 출판된 바르트의 글들: - teaching notes - Barthes, Roland (2007) Le Discours amoureux: Séminaire à l’Ecole pratique deshautes e ́tudes 1974–1976, ed. Coste C. Paris: Seuil. - Barthes, Roland (2010a) Le Lexique de l’auteur: Séminaire à l’École pratique des hautes êtudes 1973–1974, suivi de fragments inédits du Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes, ed. Pierrot AH. Paris: Seuil. - Barthes, R., Briggs, K. and Léger, N. (2011) _The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Courses and Seminars at the Collège De France, 1978-1979 and 1979-1980_. New York: Columbia University Press (European perspectives: a series in social thought and cultural criticism). - Barthes, Roland (2013) How To Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of Some Everyday Spaces, trans. Briggs K. New York: Columbia University Press. - two journals - Barthes, Roland (2011) Travels in China, trans. Brown A. Cambridge: Polity, 2011. - 바르트는 1974년에 중국을 여행함 - Barthes, Roland (2010) Mourning Diary: October 26, 1977–September 15, 1979, ed. Léger N, trans. Howard R. New York: Hill and Wang. - a late account of modernity - Barthes, Roland (2010c) Phrase – Modernité. Genesis 30: 239–283.  - the letters, notes and short texts of the centenary Album - Barthes, R. and Gladding, J. (2018) _Album: Unpublished Correspondence and Texts_. 바르트가 소쉬르의 영향을 받고 ‘The Kitchen of Meaning’에서 쓴 “This at least: all are signs” [@barthes_semiotic_1994, 157] 처럼 그에게 있어서:" > “as Mythologies makes clear, the project is to track down ruthlessly the ‘ideological abuse’ in ‘the decorative display of what-goes-without-saying’" [@ barthes_mythologies_2006, xix] 이렇게 초기의 바르트는 the semiological Barthes who exposes ‘ideological abuse’ and wishes exemption from meaning from the world where is trapped by language. 이러한 초기 바르트의 대표격인 글들이 바로 - 'The Death of the Author’ in 1967 (1986: 54),  - Empire of Signs in 1970 (1983: 73–6),  - and in Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes in 1975 (1995: 87) 가 있다. 그리고 후기에 들어와서 바르트는  “Neutral treated the desire with fresh and fuller force” [@badmington_undefined_2020, 68] at the stake in an ethics of language. The Neutral concerns “every inflection that, dodging or baffling the paradigmatic, oppositional structure of meaning, aims at the suspension of the conflictual basis of discourse’ [@barthes_neutral_2005, 211] Which is the Desire of ‘thought and practice of the non-conflictual’ [@barthes_neutral_2005, 44] > “In short, Western tradition is problematic for me in this: not because it decides that conflict exists, that the world is conflictual, but: because it transforms conflict into a nature and a value (or, another version of the same refusal: making a value out of nature). [@barthes_neutral_2005, 126] > “naturalization of conflict” [@badmington_undefined_2020, 69] 바르트가 이러한 일화를 가장 강하게 느낀 이야기 > “Barthes explains, he followed polite social convention and opened the conversation with the remark, ‘The weather was nice yesterday’ (2005: 113). In reply to such a comment, he notes, ‘one might expect yes/no (and rather more yes, since the subject is not conflictual!)’ (2005: 113).10 He was surprised, then, when the woman replied ‘It was hot’, for this response ‘neither affirms nor denies the nice weather, [but] displaces the paradigm toward another paradigm, indeed another value’ [@barthes_neutral_2005, 113] 바르트의 뉴트럴은 블랑숏과 다른 뉴트럴, 그에게는  > The Neutral, as imagined by Barthes in the course of 1977–8, offers alternatives, flight, respite, exemption, suspension [...] “the ethics of language’,” [@badmington_undefined_2020, 70] 즉 이중성에 잡혀있는 언어의 세상에서 visibles = signs 의 세상에서 언어의 윤리 그리고 그러한 윤리를 실행하기 위한 strategies for living, "for inhabiting and interpreting culture with nuanced tact" [@badmington_undefined_2020, 70] 이라고 할 수 있다. 그렇다면 뉴트럴을 향한 욕망은 무엇을 향한 욕망인가? 1. first: suspension (épochè) of orders, laws, summons, arrogances, terrorisms, puttings on notice, demands, the will-to-possess. 2. then, by way of deepening, refusal of pure discourse of opposition. Suspension of narcissism: no longer to be afraid of images (imago): to dissolve one’s own image (a wish that borders on the negative mystical discourse, or Zen or Tao). [@barthes_neutral_2005, 12-3] 즉 중지와 거부를 향한 욕망이 아닐까? 판단의 중지와 판단을 통한 전개의 거부. 이러한 예시중 하나가 바로 *weariness*가 있다. > “Quoting Blanchot, Barthes observes that weari- ness is ‘a state that is not possessive’, [@barthes_neutral_2005, 20] an ‘intensity’ [@barthes_neutral_2005, 18] which outplays the conventional coding of everyday life.” [@badmington_undefined_2020, 71] “Signs are too cunning, too subtle, too stubborn, too strong.” [@badmington_undefined_2020, 8] “In ‘Mythology Today’, in 1971, the shift is from the sign (which Saussure had, of course, understood to be the union of signifiant and signifie´) to a ‘science of the signifier’ whose ‘goal is not so much the analysis of the sign as its dislocation’ (1986: 66).” [@badmington_undefined_2020, 8] “This is evidently a Barthes who has read the early Derrida and come to recognize that the signified is, as Of Grammatology puts it, ‘always already in the position of the signifier’ (Derrida, 1976: 73, emphasis in original)” ([Badmington, 2020, p. 8](zotero://select/library/items/H69C3NNR)) ([pdf](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/V69YGGMG?page=8&annotation=L9ZJ29IB)) “a mythological endoxa has been created: demystification (or demythification) has itself become a discourse, a corpus of phrases, a catechistic statement’ (1986: 66).” ([Badmington, 2020, p. 8](zotero://select/library/items/H69C3NNR)) ([pdf](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/V69YGGMG?page=8&annotation=5MVXCA99)) In his brief summary of what he taught to be included in the _Annuaire_ (Yearbook) in the lecture collection_ The Neutral: Lecture Course at the Collège De France (1977-1978)_ (2005), he approached **Neutre** as a grammatical genre, observe and describe in facts of discourses rather than of language. It refers to “every syntagm that is articulated by meaning: literary, philosophical, and mystical texts, but also gestures, behaviours, and conducts coded by society, inner subjective moves.” " barthes_neutral_2005, 211" In the process of teaching every inflection of Neutral, it aimed at the suspension of the conflictual basis of discourse, which might be connected to the 19th and the 20th century theoretical ground including Marx, Freud, and Darwin. Therefore, two groups are closely analysed: conflictual types of discourse (Affirmation, Adjective, Anger, Arrogance, etc.) and that suspend conflict (Benevolence, Weariness, Silence, Tact, Sleep, Oscillation, Retreat, etc.). It is also important to note that those discourses are far from common uses but related to specific references, such as Tao or Boehme and Blanchot. For him, the “definition of the Neutral remains structural […] refer to intense, strong, unprecedented states. "To outplay the paradigm" is an ardent, burning activity,” "barthes_neutral_2005, p. 7" thus, constitute a strong and active value in Neutral.” ### Skepticism and Desire In the course of lectures, one of the most significant references was Skepticism (Neither A nor B) of Pyrrho, which also connects to the silence and weariness.  ![[Pasted image 20240317124800.png]] There are four forms of discourse. These are phrasis (positive), apophasi (negation), érôtèsis (questioning), and prosagoreusis (declaration, appellatio, greeting). In reality, the novel will be neither positive nor negative, nor questionable.  Fiction tells and speaks again and again. The novel will tell. The novel calls. (This is what In Search of Lost Time and War and Peace do for me.) In relation to the concept of neutrality, I would say: the novel, A novel, is a discourse that doesn't put any pressure on me ≠arrogant. Therefore, I myself want a practice of discourse that does not put pressure on others. This is the focus of the lecture on neutrality. Is the novel a neutral writing? 롤랑은 기억의 소설 톨스토이의 전쟁과 평화나 [[Marcel Proust|프루스트]] 류의 소설을 좋아하지만 그 스스로가 기억력이 부족하다고 확신한다.  ### Tao, Lao-Tzu ### Ambiguity and the Frame [Barthes and Frame](obsidian://open?vault=Walking%20Frame&file=References%2FReading%20notes%2F%40branigan_how_2006) ## Next Steps in The Preparation of Novel  # References - Anca Parvulescu (2008) ‘The Professor’s Desire’, diacritics, 37(1), pp. 32–39. doi:10.1353/dia.0.0018. - Badmington, N. (2020) ‘An Undefined Something Else: Barthes, Culture, Neutral Life’, Theory, Culture & Society, 37(4), pp. 65–76. doi:10.1177/0263276420910493. - Barthes, R. (2005) The Neutral: Lecture Course at the Collège De France (1977-1978). Translated by R.E. Krauss and D. Hollier. New York: Columbia University Press (European perspectives). - Barthes, R. (2006) ‘Neither-Nor Criticism’, in Lavers, A. (tran.) Mythologies. 47. [print.]. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, pp. 81–83. - Henry P. Schwartz (2013) ‘Barthes, The Neutral, and Our Neutrality’, American Imago, 70(3), pp. 487–513. doi:10.1353/aim.2013.0019. - Manghani, S. (2020) ‘Neutral Life: Roland Barthes’ Late Work – An Introduction’, Theory, Culture & Society, 37(4), pp. 3–34. doi:10.1177/0263276420911425. [@manghani_neutral_2020] # Extra [[@blanchot_infinite_1993|The Infinite Conversation (1993)]] ### Related ```dataview LIST FROM [[@barthes_neutral_2005]] and -"Plans" and -"resources" ```