Structuralism and Post Structuralism
Roland Barthes is a French literary theorist, linguist and semiotician whom is most famous for his studies of the relationship between the author and the reader in literature. In following Ferdinand Saussure's semiotic studies, Barthes contributed to the development of structuralism. The theory of Structuralism identifies language as a system of arbitrary signs that evolved as source of communication to interpret meaning and express our experiences of reality. It became clear however that language failed to express reality and rather constructed a false representation of it from which we are governed and imprisoned. Barthes later work marks his shift towards Post-structuralism which emerged in the 1960’s in rebellion of the restrictions of structuralism. He postulated theories, among other literary critics such as; Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, that sought to liberate the reader from the constraints of this structural system via its destabilisation and deconstruction.
Pleasure vs Bliss
The most appropriate and relevant theory of Barthes to note in relation to The Bloody chamber (which will become clear in my analysis of The Tiger's Bride) - is his concept of the text of pleasure (plaisir) and bliss (jouissance). In his work published in The Pleasure of the Text (1973) Barthes defines and distinguishes between the two. He defines the pleasurable text as “prattle” which abides by the rules and rigidity of language and thus constructs meaning for its passive reader. In line with post-modern theorists Theodor Adorno and Jean Baudrillard, Barthes implies that the pleasurable text is that of ‘low art’ which implodes any authentic meaning and is a capital creation that merely serves as an ideological apparatus to control its masses;
“The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition: content, ideological schema, the blurring of contradictions-these are repeated, but the superficial forms are varied: always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning (Barthes, 1975, P.42).
Under the influence of both Lacan and Kristeva, Barthes explains that the ‘pleasure principle’ is created through the maintenance of a ‘hyperreality’ via representational methods from which the readers’ identity is formed and comfortably secured. Lacan claims that a child enters, and becomes subjected to, the systematic rules of language through which the unconscious is invaded and the ‘real’ authentic self is split. He argues that the subject's identity will be assigned and developed through language and its ideologies accordingly “the subject is seen as the product of language. The subject is no longer the source and origin of human action and thought, but rather a site in which language's presence is felt" (Allen, 2004, p: 105).
Barthes declares this text as ‘readerly' due to the inactive role of the reader whom is so accustomed to its laws simply reads/consumes it and is therefore systemised.
"The Pleasure afforded by such texts might seem to plug the reader into shared social values” (Allen,2004, P: 104).
Furthermore, Barthes offers a summary of key elements to which the text of pleasure can be identified and will prove invaluable in my analysis;
"excess of precision, a kind of maniacal exactitude of language, a descriptive madness” (Barthes,1975,P:26).
In contrast, Barthes ‘bliss’ is defined as the text that induces exploration and liberation of the self from the oppression of language via an erotic (and often painful) experience. Barthes states that in order to reach bliss, the structural language of the readerly text must be disturbed or ‘dissolved’ to create a ‘gap’, ‘seam’ or ‘cut’ (Barthes,1975,P:7) within which the reader can reconnect with the unconscious, natural state of the self. Barthes likens this transition to a death or loss of the subject;
"Jouissance or coming, for Barthes, disperses or scatters the self in a moment in which, instead of finding or communicating with ourselves, we lose even ourselves" (Allen,2004,P:100).
Figuration vs Representation
Barthes offers that figurative language is the tool of incision used upon the pleasurable text to escape the ideologies of representation and enable the experience of bliss. He claims that the attention to rhythm and sound in poetry, symbolism, intertextuality, parody of a genre and its conventions all destruct the singularity of Saussure’s signifier and signified. This tearing of the structure creates plurality in the interpretation of the text and therefore a set, singular meaning is no longer provided which “puts the speaking subject into crisis” (Oliver,2002.P:2). The subject is removed from the comfort of its passive role of the readerly text and a ‘writerly’ text is created whereby the reader is actively involved in constructing meaning - they fill the gaps with themselves;
“The writerly text is ourselves writing, before the infinite play of the world is stopped, plasticised by some singular system” (Barthes, 1990, P: 5)
Barthes further elaborates that bliss is experienced in response to
“ the language lined with flesh, a text where we can hear the grain of the throat, the patina of consonants, the voluptuousness of vowels, a whole carnal stereophony: the articulation of the body, of the tongue, not that of meaning, of language” (197,P:66).
It is my understanding that this text possesses a body through which it speaks to the physical senses of the reader and thus reaches the unconscious whereby a natural response is triggered that constructs individual meaning. Figuration for Barthes dismantles the rules of language, the ideology that underlies it and thus the self in preparation for a reassembly of the real.
In my analysis of both The Tiger’s Bride and The Courtship of Mr Lyon it will become clear that Carter induces this erotic experience to sexually liberate women from ideologies perpetuated within the pleasurable texts of pornography.
To Summarise -Associated Key words
To Summarise -Associated Key words
Pleasure
Readerly Representational (Realism) Classic Texts Structuralism Excessive Descriptive Products Singular Oppressive Illusion Prattle |
Bliss
figurative poetic Plurality – intertextuality metaphorical writerly unconventional liberation Real Bodily avant garde Post structuralism post modernism |