The textualization of rhetorical elements in L'empire des signes and La chambre claire, by Roland Barthes

• Grant number: 24/06370-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: January 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Claudia Consuelo Amigo Pino
• Grantee: Gabriel Apostólico Carra
• Supervisor: Mathieu Messager
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/08960-5 - The seduction of the text in L'empire des signes and La chambre claire, by Roland Barthes, BP.MS

Abstract

In this research project, I intend to study the textualization of some figures of elocutio used by Roland Barthes in two essays: metaphors and metonymies in 'L'empire des signes' (1970) and similes and prosopopoeias in 'La chambre claire' (1980). In these two essays, a delicate and sometimes contradictory situation is outlined: we find useful ideas for thinking beyond the limits of the text itself (that is, there is conceptualization); however, on the other hand, the concepts are articulated in a novelistic manner, being used for narrative purposes within the essays. Several researchers of Barthes' work, such as Paulo Ferraz (2018; 2019; 2023) and Mathieu Messager (2012; 2019; 2021), have already observed this characteristic in Barthesian essays. We start from the principle that a study of the textualization of some rhetorical movements can help us better understand how the author sustains this dynamic in his texts. To carry out the proposed analyses in this project, we propose to consult the archives of Barthes gathered at the BnF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) and the most recent bibliography on Barthes published in France.