Rushworth, J;
(2021)
Barthes and mouvance.
Exemplaria
, 33
(3)
pp. 312-326.
10.1080/10412573.2021.1977523.
Preview |
Text
Rushworth_10412573.2021.pdf Download (755kB) | Preview |
Abstract
In this article I consider, through the example of mouvance, both Roland Barthes’s engagement with medieval culture and the contribution that medievalists can make to Barthes studies. The term mouvance was proposed by Paul Zumthor to account for textual instability in a pre-print age of often anonymous texts. Barthes uses Zumthor’s term twice, in a lecture from Comment vivre ensemble (How to Live Together) given on February 2, 1977. Focusing on these occurrences, I show how Barthesian mouvance shares with Zumthor’s definition an emphasis on instability, while also acting as a gloss on one of Barthes’s own terms: idiorrythmie (idiorrhythmy). Barthes’s use of the term mouvance is one striking example of his own engagement with contemporary medieval scholarship. Yet I also argue that mouvance, for Barthes, is a matter of form as much as content. Accordingly, I suggest that medievalists, and the notion of mouvance, can help respond to editorial challenges surrounding Barthes’s work, especially in the case of posthumously published texts with oral origins that exist in several different versions.
Type: | Article |
---|---|
Title: | Barthes and mouvance |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1080/10412573.2021.1977523 |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10412573.2021.1977523 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Barthes; Zumthor; mouvance; lecture; oral; edition; posthumous |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > SELCS |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10133932 |
Archive Staff Only
![]() |
View Item |