'From Work to Text' by Roland Barthes

From Work to Text by Roland Barthes | Critical Summary                                                                        

Introduction: The Change in our Idea of Language

A change has lately occurred, or is occurring, in our idea of language and consequently of the (literary) work. This change is obviously linked to the present development of a host of other disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, Marxism, psychoanalysis, etc.

The transformation of the Notion of the Work

The interdisciplinary activity, today so highly valued in research, begins effectively when the solidarity of the old disciplines breaks down-perhaps even violently, through the shocks of fashion. The mutation which seems to be affecting the notion of the work, is part of an epistemological shift more than of a real break of the kind which in fact occurred in the last century upon the appearance of Marxism and Freudianism. Barthes’s main propositions of the differences between work and text are outlined - in terms of method, genres, signs, plurality, filiation, reading, and pleasure.

1. Method: According to Barthes, ‘work’ can be handled. It is a concrete object - something that is definite and complete, “a fragment of a substance occupying a portion of the spaces of books,” whereas the text is the composition or the meaning the reader takes from the ‘work’ and hence, it is not a definite object. The difference between a work and a text is as follows: the work is a fragment of substance, it occupies a portion of the spaces of books (for example, in a library). The Text is a methodological field. a distinction proposed by Lacan: ‘reality’ is shown, the ‘real’ is proved; in the same way, the work is seen (in bookstores, in card catalogues, on examination syllabuses), the text is demonstrated, is spoken according to certain rules (or against certain rules); the work is held in the hand, the text is held in language. The Text is experienced only in an activity, in a production.

2. Genres: Similarly, the Text does not stop at (good) literature; it cannot be caught up in a hierarchy, or even in a simple distribution of genres. Hence, unlike the rigid classifications applied to the ‘work,’ the text cannot be pigeon-holed into a genre or placed in a hierarchical system. What constitutes it is on the contrary its force of subversion with regard to the old classifications. The text poses problems of classification. The text tries to place itself very exactly behind the limit of genres – all literary texts are woven out of other literary texts. Hence, there is no literary ‘originality’: all literature is ‘intertextual’ and paradoxical.

3. Signs: The text is ‘incomplete’ in that it is metonymic; its words or phrases may be exchanged for others with similar meanings or associations. Its meaning becomes interrupted since it encourages the reader to produce overlapping ideas and make associations. Its ambiguity causes it to become extremely symbolic and makes its signifiers arbitrary and undetermined. On the contrary, the ‘work’ is complete, in that it closes upon a signified. It has closure and can be interpreted literally and is explanatory and is a sign in itself.

4. Plurality: The Text is plural. This does not mean only that it has several meanings but that it fulfills the very plurality of meaning: an irreducible (and not just acceptable) plurality. The Text is not coexistence of meaning, but passage, traversal; hence, it depends not on an interpretation, however liberal, but on an explosion, on dissemination. The plurality of the Text depends, as a matter of fact, not on the ambiguity of its contents, but on what we might call the stereographic plurality of the signifiers which weave it (etymologically, the text is a fabric).

5. Filiation: The work is caught up in a process of filiation. If writing is seen as a ‘work’ it is defined by a process of association or authorship. It becomes affiliated and identified with its author and the reader’s knowledge of the author and previous works may become the key to its understanding. The author is reputed to be the father and the owner of his work; literary science thus teaches us to respect the manuscript and the author’s declared intentions, and society postulates a legality of the author’s relation to his work (this is the “author’s rights,”) The Text, on the other hand, is read without the Father’s inscription.

No vital “respect” is therefore due to the Text: it can be broken (moreover, this is what the Middle Ages did with two nonetheless authoritarian texts: Scripture and Aristotle); the Text can be read without its father’s guarantee; the restoration of the intertext paradoxically abolishes inheritance. It is not that the Author cannot ‘return’ in the Text, in his text, but he does so, one might say, as a guest; if he is a novelist, he inscribes himself there as one of his characters, drawn as a figure in the carpet; his inscription is no longer privileged, paternal, but ludic: he becomes, one can say, a paper author; The I that writes the text is never anything but a paper I.

6. Reading: The work is a commodity – the object of consumption; today it is the work’s “quality” (which ultimately implies an appreciation of “taste”) and not the actual operation of reading which can make differences between books: “cultivated” reading is not structurally different from reading on trains. The Text (if only by its frequent “unreadability”) decants the work (if it permits it at all) from its consumption and recuperates it as play, task, production, practice. This means that the Text requires an attempt to abolish (or diminish) the distance between writing and reading, not by intensifying the reader’s projection into the work, but by linking the two together into one and the same signifying practice.

The reduction of reading to consumption is obviously responsible for the "boredom" many feel in the presence of the modern (“unreadable”) text, the avantgarde film or painting: to be bored means one cannot produce the text, play it, release it, make it go.

7. Pleasure: This suggests one final approach to the Text: that of pleasure. I do not know if a hedonist aesthetic ever existed. Of course, a pleasure of the work (of certain works) exists; I can enjoy reading and rereading Proust, Flaubert, Balzac, and even-why not? - Alexandre Dumas; but this pleasure, however intense, remains partly a pleasure of consumption: for, if I can read these authors, I also know that I cannot rewrite them (that one cannot, today, write ‘like that’); and this rather depressing knowledge suffices to separate me from the production of these works! The Text is linked to jouissance or delectation, i.e., to pleasure without separation. It is not an object of consumption making it not reliant on the author and reader can write and re-write it.

Conclusion

Barthes concludes this seminal article by emphasising that a text creates social utopia in its own ways. In addition, only a practice of writing, which is a process of production, can bring the text alive, and harmonize with the Theory of Text. Thereby, he upholds the ‘text’ by declaring it as an ultimate literary concept, as against the more popular notion of ‘work’.

1971

As Responsible Digital Mentors....

Let’s Stop the Blame game Please!

Today’s kids are almost always accused and blamed for being over-addicted to their smart phones!

[A generation ago, they were accused of spending much time on the internet!]

Well, the very concept of blaming or accusing another person makes you ‘feel’ elevated or superior to your intended ‘victim’, while the accused or the blamed, gets an inferior standing in their scheme of things.

Let’s put our hands to our hearts and ask ourselves, ‘What would we have done, as kids, in such a situation?’

Almost the same, or sometimes even more I guess! 

Unfortunately we didn’t have access to the digital sphere back then. That doesn’t mean we have to always assume the ‘holier-than-thou’ elevated status and constantly blame our today’s kids for their excessive ‘addiction’ to the digital!

Mother Teresa once famously said, ‘If you judge people, you have no time to love them.’

So yes! Let’s not blame our today’s kids for their ‘addiction’ to the smartphones! Instead let’s love them for who they are! For what they mean to us! I'm doubly confident and sure that they'd make us all proud exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think! 

Those of us from the 70s and 80s who haven’t had the privilege of growing up with gadgets, had our own unique ways of entertaining ourselves, ain't we?

The basic human instinct for harmony, balance, rhythm in life we too achieved through our own sweet ways of entertainment!

We had our own ways of amusement and entertainment like visiting the libraries or watching Doordarshan or watching the royal Russian circus, etc.

But today’s kids have a different mode of entertainment altogether!

They are, in today’s parlance, ‘digital natives’!

As such, blaming them on being excessively addicted to their smart phones is not right in any way, ain’t it? The legendary Stephen Hawking himself vouches to this fact! 

The only way in which we could possibly approach this issue, as responsible digital mentors would be, to help them downsize their time on the digital sphere. 

Probably we could suggest that they wean themselves away from the digital for at least eight hours a day - 1/3rd of a day, and help them channelise their creative quotient sky-high on the digital sphere.

I’ve personally seen our students do extremely well on the digital sphere – be it in graphic designing, or in their You Tube presentations, or in their podcasts - with such finesse and aplomb!

So yup! Let’s stop blaming today’s generation for their excessive use of the smart phone. It’s like throwing mud on ourselves!

Like we had our own sweet channels of entertainment, they have theirs!

They are also human, like you, and me and we! 

To each [generation] their aura!

And let’s start celebrating it!

PS: Three decades ago, we all were glued to our Doordarshan for our sports, our news, our breakfast ‘keep fit shows’, for our oliyum oliyum, etc. Back then, Doordarshan was the only player in the ‘telecasting’ industry. This diary entry that dates back to almost three decades ago, provided me with the spark and the impetus for this post!

'My diary and me – we’ve had a reciprocal relationship...I also felt that, online validations are not important to me anymore!'

And the Winner… 🏆 | of the Diary Challenge 2022 

Well, at the very beginning of last year, I had posted two little challenges on my status on Whatsapp, for both students and faculty, meant to exhort us all to write our daily diaries, and writing a blog as well.

It goes like this –

If you have taken a resolve to write your daily diary jottings for this year, do ping me by 5.59 pm today, [on the same day] and I shall send you a diary worth Rs. 500/- free of cost, with free postage as well, anywhere in India.

And yes! if you have managed to write your diary for the entire year, I promise to honour your commitment and consistency with a prize money of Rs.10,000/-

[The same applies for the blogging challenge as well. You had to write ten posts on an online web blog, by creating a beautiful blog all for yourself. That means, you do 10x12 = 120 posts at the end of the year].

So yes! I promptly dispatched 12 diaries to all those who had taken up the challenge from all over India, and the rest – fourteen of them, to our students – hand-delivered in College.

Accepting the challenge meant, you had to –

Ping me on the same day by 5.59 pm,

Write your diary consistently, and update me on your diary entries periodically,

And

On 31st December 2022, you had to ping me on completing your challenge.

[Well, some faculty and students had accepted to the challenge the next day as well. So they technically do not come under the challenge. However I dispatched the diaries to all of them, for the love they had for diary writing.]

At the end of the year, one student had emerged victorious in the challenge.

Presenting Mr. Ganesh Aadhitya S, ladies and gentlemen.

And one vibrant faculty member [who opted for the challenge the next day] had also completed the challenge. 

Presenting Dr. Nazneen M.Y. with B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science & Technology. Congratulations dear Dr. Nazneen!

And yes! A special word of appreciation to Ms. Kowsalya, who had attempted the blogging challenge with seven good posts. Congratulations Ms. Kowsalya! 

Well, Ganesh regularly gave me updates on his engaging, exhilarating and rewarding experience in writing down his daily record of events.

On the 1st of February 2022, he wrote to me, thus –

Successfully completed one month in the Diary Challenge, sir!

My ‘reflective self’ is having a field day everyday since I ventured into the delightful realm of diary writing. January 6th is my favourite entry!

Sir, as you had so rightly pointed out, I feel accountable to my new companion. Onto February now!

Thank you for this opportunity!

And on 30th December 2022, he had written to me, thus –

Just one more day to go for the Diary challenge to come to an end! What a journey it had been! Thank you for the wonderful opportunity!

Simply put, a diary never judges you. It’s a silent listener and sometimes you need those non-judgemental ears!

Finally, when I got to meet with him at our Office over a long chat, I asked him about his tryst with writing a diary. He had this to say –

Firstly, the small things / the little things in life – that mean a lot to us – but in real life we actually ignore them. Like, a small gesture from some well-wisher, or some little act of kindness. All these form part of my daily diary entry, sir.

Secondly, I realised how much I love my family – of which you’d find mention in every page, especially my sister who left for her higher studies – and its impact you could find in the 15 subsequent pages.

Thirdly, my diary entry contains a mix of both positive and mixed feelings as well. I’ve critiqued things in equal measure.

Fourthly, it has improved me as a person. My diary and me – we’ve had a reciprocal relationship. Sometimes, when I feel I’ve not done anything on a particular day worth mentioning, it would give me a complex! So it egged me on, to do something, at least to write it down in my dairy.

Fifthly, it has made me a political being. In September, I took up poetry – Neruda’s poetry. In fact, my MA project finds its roots in my dairy. I also felt that, online validations are not important to me anymore. Sadly, I find people losing themselves in the process of looking out for online validations of themselves. Diary writing in a way helped me to stop looking for validations in other people.

With a teacher’s sweet little pride, presenting Ganesh Aaditya, dear ladies and gentlemen!

Here’s wishing you all the best in your diary writing and blogging for this academic year as well!

'A transition person is one who breaks the flow of bad - the negative traditions or harmful practices that get passed from generation to generation'

Everyday Greatness | Steven R. Covey

Well, I chanced upon this Reader’s Digest publication at OM Books, Anna Nagar, on 19th December 2022. Steven R. Covey has always been a charmer who gifts his reader with his ‘charm’d magic casements’ that never ceases to amaze us!

This book is an added credence to this credo!

Excerpts -

I feel blessed to be familiar with dedicated teachers and talented youths who are rich in character and committed to make a difference - each in their own unique way… people from all walks of life and all parts of the world who are genuinely good and who do so much to contribute to the world around them. They inspire me.

While so many of us are up to good things, most of us know that the good we are doing does not always represent our best. We sense there is still more we can be getting out of life, more we can be giving.

A Transition Person

I hope this collection will arouse within you a greater passion for being a transition person.

A transition person is one who breaks the flow of bad - the negative traditions or harmful practices that get passed from generation to generation, or from situation to situation, whether in a family, a workplace, a community, or wherever. Transition persons transcend their own needs and tap into the deepest, most noble impulses of human nature.

In times of darkness, they are lights, not judges; models, not critics. In periods of discord, they are change catalysts, not victims; healers, not carriers.

Today’s world needs more transition persons.

Primary Greatness

Everyday Greatness is what I have called, in other settings, “primary greatness.”

It has to do with character and contribution, as distinguished from “secondary greatness,” which has to do with notoriety, wealth, fame, prestige, or position.

Everyday Greatness is a way of living, not a one-time event.

It says more about who a person is than what a person has, and is portrayed more by the goodness that radiates from a face than the title on a business card.

It speaks more about people’s motives than about their talents; more about small and simple deeds than about grandiose accomplishments. It is humble.

THREE EVERY DAY CHOICES

So what leads to Everyday Greatness? The answer lies in three every day choices!  

The three choices that provide the foundation for Everyday Greatness -

The choice to act represents the energy we bring to life - our will power.

The choice of purpose represents our destination - where we choose to go in life, what we choose to accomplish.

The choice for principles then determines the means for how we will get there - how we will attain our goals.

The Chapter closes with a few insightful Reflections for the Reader -

John Baker found Sandia Crest to be a secluded location for pondering his future and the contribution he wished to make. Where is your Sandia Crest? Do you go there often enough?

What comforts are you willing to give up to make a more significant contribution?

to be continued...

PS: You may want to read our past post on Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, [posted on 28th September 2009], HERE.

Cordially Inviting You...

 

'The Digital Detox countermovement advocated for a regular “digital detox” regimen to preserve one’s mental and physical well-being'

Digital Detox | The Countermovement ❤️

In her popular book titled, Digital Detox: Why Taking a Break from Technology Can Improve Your Well-Being by Bernadette H. Schell, details on the concept of Digital Detox!

Excerpts from the Preface to her Book for us all -

The Internet that we rely on today had its origin in 1969, when it was created by the U.S. Department of Defense as a digital communications experiment linking hundreds of defense contractors, universities, and research laboratories.

This powerful computer network, under the jurisdiction of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), allowed highly trained artificial intelligence (AI) researchers in dispersed geographic locations to transmit and exchange critical information with incredible speed.

The purpose of ARPA was to keep U.S. citizens safe, especially in times of crisis or war.

There is little question that the Internet has brought many conveniences to modern-day online users, such as paying bills without leaving home, playing online games with netizens close by or around the globe, surfing the Net to catch up on the latest breaking news, watching one’s favorite television series for the last five seasons all in one sitting, communicating with others in social networks for relationship maintenance or relationship building, and completing a university degree in any country around the world without leaving one’s armchair.

It is not surprising, therefore, that by 2017, over 50% of the world’s citizens were reportedly using the Internet daily, 37% were actively using social media, and 66% owned a smartphone… and a Nielsen report released in 2018 found that American adults logged a total of 11 hours of screen time daily.

Consequently, digital device and app makers - including Apple, Samsung, Facebook, and Instagram - have recently begun rolling out new features to help users track and limit their usage in an effort to reduce their risk for Internet and digital device.

Since about 1995, when U.S. mental health practitioners such as Dr. Kimberly Young began to discuss the worrisome prevalence of Internet addiction (IAD) among online users, researchers across a number of disciplines have documented the negative effects associated with Internet overuse. IAD, for example, has been linked to the following manifestations of poor mental and behavioral health in users:

• anxiety, depression, and stress;

• a lack of productivity at work or a lack of academic performance at school;

• reduced real-world social interactions versus an obsession with online interactions; and

• severe mental health problems, including suicide ideation or attempts.

Given these concerning findings, by about 2016, a countermovement to digital device overuse and addiction began to surface in Europe and globally soon thereafter.

In its various forms, the countermovement became known for including individuals who vociferously advocated for a regular “digital detox” regimen to preserve one’s mental and physical well-being.

Generally speaking, digital detox refers to a period of time when an individual consciously decides to not go online or use connected devices. Depending on the protocol followed for such a digital cleansing, the selfdefined abstinence period can last from less than an hour to indefinitely.

Time away from the digital world is generally seen as an opportunity to “become whole” again by focusing on previously enjoyed off-line activities, such as socializing with family and friends, focusing on work or school activities without digital devices, or simply relaxing.

So yes! Are you game for a digital detox? Write to me at rufus@mcc.edu.in if you intend to try out a daily ‘eight-hour digital detox’ resolve.

And wait! If you wish to opt for a Digital Detox, I shall send you a list of Do’s and Don’ts on how to creatively engage yourself during the digital detox time. I’ve decided to have a Digital Detox from 10 pm to 6 am everyday! Hope it works out! 😉

And if you’re successful at Digital Detox for at least a duration of three months, hey presto! Congratulations! you are a real high flyer! I would also like to interview you on your tryst with your Digital Detox time, after your Detox time is up!

Here’s wishing you the best in your try on your tryst with the DDC! - The Digital Detox Countermovement! 😊

Wish me godspeed as well dear reader! 🙏😊