An Undefined Something Else: Barthes, Culture, Neutral Life. (July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Badmington, Neil
• Is Part Of: Theory, culture & society. Volume 37:Number 4(2020)
• Page Start: 65
• Page End: 76
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Subjects: Roland Barthes -- cultural analysis -- Mythologies -- The Neutral -- semiology; Social sciences -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0263276420910493
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-2764

Abstract

How might Roland Barthes' posthumously published account of the Neutral invite us to rethink the very activity of cultural analysis? How did Barthes the cultural critic change when, towards the end of his career, he described and desired Neutral Life? Cultural criticism has often taken Barthes' early semiological work as a guide, but this essay examines how we might need to reorient ourselves as critics, shift our stance, learn to look and live differently in the light of Barthes' later focus on the Neutral.