Page 78 - Critical and Cultural Theory

TEXTUALITY
ably written on the body. Concurrently, eminently physical and
erotic drives come into play in both the reading and the writing of
texts.
The earlier phases of Barthes's theoretical career deploy semiotic
and structuralist methodologies as a means of examining the codes
and conventions of both verbal and non-verbal systems of signs.
One of Barthes's main aims is to expose the doxa, the body of
unexamined opinions and assumptions that govern cultures and
societies, and thus show that reality is never transparent. Barthes
approaches the text as a multi-layered, onion-like construct articu-
lating various (often conflicting) meanings, which lends itself to a
critical process of disentanglement but never leads to a solid core
of truth. The reader's identity is accordingly pluralized in a
patently anti-humanist fashion.
Writing Degree Zero (1953) deconstructs the claims to universal-
ity made by ecriture classique (the form of writing endorsed by
dominant traditions) by suggesting that writing is never timeless
but actually always committed to the legitimation of specific ideol-
ogies. It is in the interest of bourgeois ideology, for example, that
realism has traditionally passed itself off as an objective reflection
of reality capable of conveying immutable truths about a suppo-
sedly stable human nature. 2 Experimental texts may subvert the
codes of realism and demonstrate that there is nothing natural
about its particular approach to reality. Yet, no style of writing
remains revolutionary for ever (however disruptive its inital
impact may be) due to ideology's remorseless strategies of appro-
priation, assimilation and colonization of anything which threa-
tens its fabric - hence, the necessity for continual experiment. The
most transgressive text is the writerly text (scriptible}: this offers
no clear solutions and requires the reader's constant and active
participation in its construction. By contrast, the readerly text
(lisible} offers a comfortable frame of reference, consolidates the
status quo and thus allows readers to take refuge in a sober sense
of conventionality. 3 A parallel dichotomy is proposed between the
ecrivant, the fundamentally realist writer committed to the record-
ing of reality and eager to treat the text merely as a vehicle for the

2
**" Realism is also discussed in Part I, Chapter 4, 'Representation' and in Part
III, Chapter 2, The Aesthetic'.
3
W This theme is also addressed in Part I, Chapter 5, 'Reading'.
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