UO) H111 aso wane A dison of Fara, 8 ROLAND BARTHES ROLAND BARTHES The Rustle of Language Translated by Richard HowardBelge Jc eto A Note from the French Editor The number oftext (he nton foun would have amu im) writen by Boland Bathe sine 1964 then Ona Eas peace in France in remartble: gto 39 prefaces ae ‘Ghoutons to mises, +2 books. Throaghou, ai he "tsa pein Nal aan pty Fainng and mui) RB's work war aned sound wing Cader th tile The SeniglAdente. A the her exten, 2 number of wring whch ne lng neropate text bt (ncordingtothese RB gave cova them) nda of ereryay Ite; tes pges wi neste anther, ‘eth lierary writing, or better sil, with the pleasure owed 40 [ges the shi in conept and preeiare hich ove feen ‘ao her ian ep an th Inning wring evermore eau wo the bcFrom Hirt Realy Iefrmati s ic il,1967 hed Gunde pri the me See aes a ls tn np mon 830 The Reality Effect ‘When Flaubere, describing the room occupied by Mime Aubai, Felice’ employer, tes us that "an old piano supported, under barometer a pyramidal heap of boxes and cartons" CA Simple Heart” from Three Tae); when Michelet, recounting the desth ‘of Charlot Corday and reporting that, before te entcutoner's arrival she was visited in prison by an arti who pained! het portrait neds the deal hat after an hour and shall here vasa gentle knock tai door behind hes" (aside France: {Ls Revlon — these authors among many others) are produc ‘ng notations which structural anal, concerned with ident fying and syemating the major ardulations of narrate, ‘sully and heretofore has left oxt, ether because its inveniry omits all etais that ae “nuperfluos” (in telation to stctur) ‘or because these same detain ae rated “ling” (tale), signed an indirect functional vali insofar as, cumulatively hey constute some index of character or atmosphere ad 0 an ulimately be recupersted by structure would sem, however, that ana seks tbe exhaustive (and what would any method be worth which did ao acount for the totality of ts object ein thiscate othe entre uefa fof the narative fabric?) veh to enconapas the absolute eta, the indivisible ani, the fugitive transtion. in order to assign them a place in the race, inevitably encounter, otaions whieh no funcion (aot even the moat initec) can Justify: such notations are scandalous (from the pit of ew of structure), o, what i even more diturbing, they seem to ‘otrespond to a kindof narrative larry, lavish tothe point of ‘olfering many “Tule” detals and thereby increasing the cost of narrative information. For fin Flaubert desert unt rnue From ary te Rely posible to seein the notton of the piano a nation of Sher’ Surges standing an in that of the aon gn of foorder ands ind of le in stun ly 10 comets the tnosphere of the Auta houhold, no parpoe Seas (0 jus reference tthe barometer a objet nether nongraots tor agaican, and therefore nt partipting tr glance ine onder ofthe mas and in Niches sentence, we have the same etal in acounting trac for al the deta thatthe exceusoner come ster the painter ral that sncessry tothe accounts how long the siting aed the dimension and Iocan ofthe door are tale ur the heme of the doo, the ‘ofc of dents knock have an indnptae symbol value) Even they ave nat mero, the "ube deta therefore secmineviuble erry native atleast every Weer narrative ‘Tie ordnary sort nowadays, posses a cerainmurber Inti so (aking word eee apparenly deached from the muraves semiotic rac) Telnet destin, eve if the abject seems fo be denoted ‘nl by angle word fn ely, here” word does not exist Fautcrstaromecr isnot ced in aon itis ost placed inasynagmaonce referential and sync usundelined the cigmate chaste oll deseipion, about which = word iseceary: he peneal strate of narativ, a esa has teen occaonay suse tl now, spears sem r= dtc schemating to the exteme, and wiho aking to ‘Stout numerous detours, dys, reversal and dsappoin tens which marae ntutonaly pore pn his schema, ‘te can my Unt, ucach atcaation of the aretve ag Toncone syst the ero (orto the reader, t doesnot mater shy tyou atin ths way ify cone thi aerate, th Shawl uppen the pnd character ofthese preditions thes nov cal nto queso their praca! mate). Deseripon The Rely Efe hs is entirely diferent: thas no predictive mark; “analogical” is structures purely summatory ard does not contain that tesjee tory of chokes and alternatives which giver narration the appearance of 4 huge tese-contrl center, furished ith Fefereniat (and not merely discursive) temporality. Thi i an ‘potion which, anthropological, ha i eaportance: when, ‘under the infuence of von Fetch’ experiment is sumed that bees had a language, i ha tobe realized that, wile these insects posiened + predictive system of dances {in order to Collect their foo), nating n approached a darn. Thus, ‘eseription appears a 2 hind of characteristic ofthe soled higher languages, to the apparent paradoxes degree that i is jusied by no Salty of action of of communkstion, ‘The singularity of description (or ofthe “uselew deti” in arene {abr ts uote situation, designate a question which has the sgreatesimportance forthe structural analysis of narrative This ‘question isthe following: Is eveything in narrative sigan, And IF not if insignificant suetches aut in the narrative Syatagm, what is ulmatly, so to speak, de sigacance of his Snsigmfcance? rt ofall, we must recall that Wester cltre in one oft major currents, has certainly no left description outside rea {ng and hat fornished ic with + finaly quite “recognized” by the tera inetation. This curtent i Rhetoric and this finality is that ofthe "beautiful: description fas long had an sexe function. Very ery in anti, the two expres funcional genres of dicoure, legal and polite, was added third, the pide, ceremonial discourse intended to excite the adi Fation of the audience (and no longer to persuade i); his scours contained in germ—vhatever the Fil rule of it ‘use eulogy or obituary—the very dex ofan aesthet alty of language inthe Alexandrian neo-thetric of the second century ‘by there was craze for cepa, the detachable et pice (hus having is end in self independent of any. genera Function), whote objet was to describe places, ines people oF Works of ata tradition which was maintained throughout theMa rom Hire Realy Middle Ages. As Cars has emphatic, desertion i his prvi i consid by o real ath umporat oF Siew is vernlindey there 30 estan to st ont oF alive tect in nother county, ony the cont f the deecipive gear coun play to referential hee Dut peal dbcrane: ithe genre leaf Gace whch ey cv the tw Moving ead wo Flaubert, we ee ht he axe purpose of descripcon st very wrong. te aden Bovey the esp tin of Rowen (eal roeren i eve here was oe) jet to the granniea conarains of what ve tus lla Sersnfde as ated by the oretons rade ith Dusmgein he coure fat cen rewrng Here we Se Fes fal chat the crrectons donot na aye from 2 dlsercnsieraton ofthe mal Roe perceedy Faber ‘ering jut the se or mre psy changes somexbat from one tern fo the net sly because be Hinds tower) foes an honge ov vad phone edundance {Danced byte ae fas gor gun farang” 3 {pute comingetfecay of expres’ next we ace ta he Ets ic whith A ace sect rata major importance (by bs dein by the concern fori eta the objet one, nna only for of ting ent eee the jones of numberof re mca, he nel prom exec which sates the poco bole soar 3 fe Ren, that tered werethe gures of retort wich thei ofthe cy les oss Rosen were notte ony by substi he ms fe of ar, he ane ge mated ch eth cin erase ey reking Sec le esce tht the whee descrpon oat ‘Sanco comece Rouen punting tina pated were Bs {he engage ake up (Thun sen from stove the whole The Rely Ect, s landicape had the motionles Took of « punting"; the weer here fulfils Pato definition of the artist at a maker inthe third degree, since he imitates what already the simulation of ‘an esience, Thus, although the dscripion of Rowen i quite irrelevant tothe narrate sractre of Madame Bowory (ve ea attach ito uo futhnal sequence nor to any character, Sumorpherc or sapien signed), is ot inthe leas sex Alalou, i jstied, not by the work’ loi, a east by he Jaws of iterate: is "eaning” ext, st depends on conformity ‘ott the model buco the cultural ules of tepresentation, “all the same, the aesthetic goal of Flavbertin description is ‘oroughly mined wth reali imperative, asthe ferent’ ‘exactitude, superior or indifferent to anyother function, soe. med and alone justified i description, orn the case of Aleseriptions reduced to a ingle word—is denotation: here ‘esthetic constants are seeped least a an albi—n refer ‘ial constraint it is Hkely tha, if one came to Rowe in ‘iigence, the view one would have coming down the slope leading tothe town would not be “objectively” diferent from the panorama Fauber describes, This raxture—thisinterwe ingot constraints has double advantage: on the one hand aestheie fanction, giving a meaning to "the fragment.” hi Whar we might call the vertigo of notation; for onee, discourse is no longer guided and ited by sructral imperatives of the anecdote (Cundions and indie), nothing could indeate why ‘we should halt dhe detail ofthe description here and not there if were ot subject to anaesthetic or shetorial choice, any view" woul be iexhaustse by dicoure: there woul always bea corner, a dui an inflecson of space oF ear to report fon the other hand, by posting the referential a6 real, by ‘pretending o followin submisve fashion, realistic descrip- ton avoide being reduced to fantasmatcactivy (a precaution hich was supposed necesary to dhe “objectivi” of the 3c fount); dail shetorie had in sense insiationalized the Fantasmatie a specie gure, hyip, whovefancon was to "put things before the hearers eye” not in a neutral46 rom History to Rly ‘onsiatve manner, but by imparting to representation al the Taster of devire (Chis was the vividly iuminated sector of scours, with prismatic outlines: hrs oe, decaratvly enouncng the constraint of the sbetrial ode, rain must seek a ne reaon to describe The ireduchle residues of Functional analysis have this in ‘common they denote whats ordinal called "concrete realy \insigufcan gestures, transtorystcaes,insigifant objets, fedundant words), The pore and simple “representation” of the “real” the naked relation of "what (ot has bee) thus appear a revitance to meaning: ths resstance confirms the rea mythic opposition of the raf (dhe fle) and the {lige ic sthces o recall that the ideology’ of ou tie, ‘Sbvewive reference to the "concrte” (in what is thetoially ‘demanded of the husan scence, ofiteratre, of Behavoe) twas branded like a wespon against meaning, si, y some seaatory exclusion, what is alive enact 201 siguly—and vice term. Resistance ofthe “eal” ins writen form of course) to trucure is very limited inthe fcve account, constructed by ‘lefniton on a model which, forts main oudines, has no other onsrants than hove of inteligblity; bot this same “realty Teconpes the essen reference mn historial narrative, which i supposed to report "what really happened” what does the non functionality ofa deal matter then, once t denotes "what took place” concrete realty” becomes the wlficentjstication for Speaking, Misory (historical iacourse: Air rum gta) it fact dhe model of dhote narratives which consent on the Inerstices of their functions by structurally supetious not tions and iis logical that Merry ream shoud have been— ithe or take afew decader—comtemporary withthe regu of objective” history, o which mur be added the contemporary development of techniques, of works, nd insiutons bsed on the incessant need to authenticate the “real the photograph finmeiae wines of what was here’), reportage exhitions ‘of ancient objets (the success of the Tutaharmen show maker this quite clea, dhe wourim of monuments and historical ste. The Realy fect M7 All this shows thatthe “rel” supposed to be selsiens, ‘that iis tong enough to belie any notion of "function that fas "apeech-act" has ao need to be integrated into a structure and tha the Aesng ben hereof things i 2 noficent principle of speceh Since ansigity, the “ea hasbeen on Mistry side; but hi vas to help oppose the “felt,” the “pause” to oppore the very order of narrative of inition or "pety". Al easel tulture ved for centuries onthe notion that rely could no ‘ay contaminate yersimltade; at ofall because erie is ever anything but opinable: is entirely subject 10 (public) pinion; ar Nicole aid: "One must no conser things as they ae in themselves, nor a they are known to be by one who Speaks or writes, but only in Eelaion wo whats knows of them by those wh read or heat": then, because History was thought to be general ot particular (whence the propensty in cas teas, to Funcionalze al deals, to produce strong races {and to justify no notion by the mere guarantee of “realty” Sally, beeen verximiitde the contrary is never impo sible since notation res on 4 majority, but not an abso, pinion, The motto implict oa dhe threshold of all dasa Adncoure (abject o the ancient idea of erxmiitude) Esto (Letters be mip) “Real fragmented, interstitial notation, the kind we are dealing with here, renounces this imple ‘ntroducion, andi i free of any such postition that ose in the structural fabric. Hence, there & 2 break between the ancient mode of versinilitude snd moder realism but hence, too, a new versmilitade is born, which i precisely ram (by which we mean any discourse wich accepts "eect ju tite by ther referent alone. ‘Semioialy, the "coerete detail is constuted by the det ‘olsion ofa relarent and ster the sigue is expelled from he sgn and witht ofcourse, dhe possibly of developing 2 form of the sgn i, narativesrucare hell (Relist Tkeratre is narrative, ofcourse, but that becae it realism is only fragmentary, cratic, confined to “detail,” and becauseus From Hisar to Rely the mos realistic narrative imaginable develops along unrealistic Tine) This is what we might cll dhe referent lain * The truth of this sion iti elininaed rom de reat speech fctab a signified of denotation, the “real” returns 10 Has a Signed of connotation: for jst wen these deal are reputed {ordenote he veal rely al that they do~without saying 0 is sgn its Flauberts barometer, Michele ile door finaly Say nothing but this eer he re it see category of “he Feat and not is contingent contents) whichis then signe nother words, the very absence ofthe signified tthe advantage Uti relerem alone, becomes the very signer of realism: the ait fs produced the bass ofthat unavowed veiimitude ‘thick forms the aesthet of al the standard works of modernity. "This nee veri x very ifferent from the old one, fo ‘eit nether a respect forthe “laws ofthe gene” nor even their task, but proceeds from the intention to degra the signs teipate amare inorder to make notation the pure encounter ‘thn objet and its expreston, The ditegration of the sigo— Mihich cems indeed wo be odernity' grand affai—is ofcourse preset inthe realtic enterprise, but ita somewhat regressive Fanner since i oxcur in te name of 2 referential plenitude, trereas the goal today i 0 empty the sign and infinitely t© postpone is ebjet ao as to challenge, ina radial fashion, the geld aestetc of "representation. Writing the Event “To describe the even implies that dhe evet as been ten, How can an event be wrsen? What can imean toy "Writing the event"? The event of May ‘88 seem to have been writen Jnthre fashions thre wring, whose poygeaphic conjunction foros, perhaps historical originality 1. Speeeh Every national shock produces «sudden lowering of writen ‘commentary (press, books). This snot what I want to speak of here. The spoken words of May 68 had orginal aspect, which rn be emphasized "- Radiophonicspecch hat of the“peripheral” stations) ung to the event, ar it wat occurring, ima breathless, dramas fashion, imposing the notion that Knowledge of present reality is wo longer the busines of print but ofthe spoken mor. Hot history, hitory in the course of being made, is an audcve intory* and eating becomes asin what i was inthe Midae Ages! ot only the Bist of the senes ahead of touch ad igh), ‘but the sense which exabihes knowledge (as, for Lathe, i fstablshed the Chriss faith), Nor is his all. The (reporters) informative word was so clotely involved with the even, with the very opacy of ts present, a8 to Beco is immediate and onsbatil meaning, is way of aceding oan instantaneous Iovligity; dis means thats terms of Wester culture, where nothing can be perceived without meaning, was the event 49