English 456: C20 Criticism and Theory Questions on Various Essays by Roland Barthes Al Drake | Cyber Cafe | Thurs. 4-6 "The World of Wrestling" from Mythologies. (1957) 1) Throughout his essay, Barthes describes how spectators interpret what they see going on in the ring. So how do they interpret what they see? To respond, choose some of the most interesting statements Barthes makes about audience expectations and responses. What picture of the audience as "readers" emerges? 2) What seems to be Barthes' attitude toward the kind of interpretation in which the audience of wrestling matches engages? That is, what are the main characteristics of the sign system that he calls the "spectacle of wrestling," and what sense do you get of Barthes' stance concerning this system? 3) What is his attitude toward the wrestlers themselves? How does he describe the wrestler's function and what does he have to say about how well this performer carries it out? Why is the wrestler's body so important to the success of the spectacle? 4) Why might it be significant that the public "condemns artifice" even as it watches a wrestling match that Barthes calls a "spectacle of excess" in which appearances (not real-life suffering) matter? *The reading selection is from Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972. 15-25. (The original text was published in 1957.) Study Questions on Barthes' "The Structuralist Activity" (1964) 1) What is the goal of structuralism? What is the value in pursuing that goal, and who benefits from its pursuit? 2) How does Barthes employ the term "imitation" (mimesis, simulacrum, etc.)? What stages does this process of simulacrum-making follow? 3) In what sense is the critic or structuralist of any sort creative? How does Barthes treat the traditional distinction between critics and artists? 4) What is structuralism not? Follow out the instances in which Barthes describes the activity of structuralism by way of the negative. 5) How would you say structuralist assumptions about interpretation differ from those of New Critical formalists like Cleanth Brooks? What might Barthes say, for example, about Brooks' assumption that there is a "poetic language" (as opposed to the denotative language of science and the everyday world) or that a work of art has its own organic "being," almost like a living thing? 6) Why is it wrong, according to Barthes, to say that structuralists ignore history and concentrate too much on the synchronic? *The reading selection is from Adams, Hazard. Critical Theory Since Plato. Rev. ed. New York: Harcourt, 1992. 1128-30. Study Questions on Barthes' "What is Criticism?" (1964) 1) What is "good conscience" or "bad faith"? (See pg. 282) 2) What is the critic's responsibility toward a given text or author—say, Proust? 3) In what sense is Barthes' essay a defense of criticism? What is the basis of his defense? Choose what you think are the most significant statements he makes about the role and value of criticism. *The reading selection is from Davis, Robert Con and Ronald Schleifer. Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies. Fourth edition. New York: Longman, 1998. 280-83. Study Questions on Barthes' "The Death of the Author" (1968) 1) What is the difference between an author and a "scriptor"? Between an individual and a "subject"? Between "literature" and "text"? The shift in terms is important here. 2) What is the relation between scriptor and text? 3) What is a "text" made of? 4) Why is the "death of the author" the "birth of the reader"? Why is classical, biography-based criticism hypocritical, according to Barthes? 5) In what sense do Barthes' comments about texts and how to read them move somewhat beyond his earlier brand of structuralism, or perhaps even constitute a break with that earlier brand? *The reading selection is from Adams, Hazard. Critical Theory Since Plato. Rev. ed. New York: Harcourt, 1992. 1130-33.
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