Creative Quotations from Roland Barthes (1915-1980)

Creative Quotations from . . .

Roland Barthes
(1915-1980) born on Nov 12

French critic. He was known for his contributions to structural linguistics and New Criticism intellectual movement; wrote "Writing Degree Zero," 1953.

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There are people who think that wrestling is an ignoble sport. Wrestling is not sport, it is a spectacle, and it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque.

What the Journal posits is not the tragic question, the Madman's question: "Who am I?", but the comic question, the Bewildered Man's question: "Am I?" A comic --a comedian, that's what the Journal keeper is.

The New is not a fashion, it is a value.

The politician being interviewed clearly takes a great deal of trouble to imagine an ending to his sentence: and if he stopped short? His entire policy would be jeopardized!

To hide a passion totally (or even to hide, more simply, its excess) is inconceivable: not because the human subject is too weak, but because passion is in essence made to be seen: the hiding must be seen: I want you to know that I am hiding something...

Published Sources for the above Quotations:
F:	Mythologies, "The World of Wrestling" (1957; tr. 1972). "What wrestling is above all meant to portray," Barthes added, "is a purely moral concept: that of justice. The idea of 'paying' is essentia
R:	"Deliberation," in Tel Quel, no. 82 (Paris, Winter 1979; repr. in Barthes: Selected Writings, 1982).
A:	The Pleasure of the Text, "Modern" (1975).
N:	The Pleasure of the Text, "Sentence" (1975).
K:	A Lover's Discourse, "Dark Glasses," sct. 2 (1977; tr. 1979).