Completed just weeks before his death, the lectures in this volume
mark a critical juncture in the career of Roland Barthes, in which
he declared the intention, deeply felt, to write a novel. Unfolding
over the course of two years, Barthes engaged in a unique
pedagogical experiment: he combined teaching and writing to
"simulate" the trial of novel-writing, exploring every step of the
creative process along the way. Barthes's lectures move from the
desire to write to the actual decision making, planning, and
material act of producing a novel. He meets the difficulty of
transitioning from short, concise notations (exemplified by his
favorite literary form, haiku) to longer, uninterrupted flows of
narrative, and he encounters a number of setbacks. Barthes takes
solace in a diverse group of writers, including Dante, whose La
Vita Nuova was similarly inspired by the death of a loved one, and
he turns to classical philosophy, Taoism, and the works of
Francois-Rene Chateaubriand, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Kafka, and
Marcel Proust. This book uniquely includes eight elliptical plans
for Barthes's unwritten novel, which he titled Vita Nova, and
lecture notes that sketch the critic's views on photography.
Following on The Neutral: Lecture Course at the College de France
(1977-1978) and a third forthcoming collection of Barthes lectures,
this volume provides an intensely personal account of the labor and
love of writing.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
