S/Z

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S/Z, published in 1970, is Roland Barthes's structuralist analysis of Sarrasine, the short story by Honoré de Balzac. Barthes methodically moves through the text of the story, denoting where and how different codes of meaning function. Barthes's study has had a major impact on literary criticism, and is historically located at the crossroads of structuralism and post-structuralism. Barthes analysis is influenced by the structuralist linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure; both Barthes and de Saussure aim to explore and demystify the link between a sign and its meaning. Barthes seeks to establish the overall system out of which all individual narratives are created, using specific "codes" that thematically, semiotically, and otherwise make a literary text "work". By pointing out how these codes function subconsciously in the mind of the reader, Barthes flags the way in which the reader is an active producer of the text, rather than a passive consumer.

[edit] Codes

Barthes defines five major codes that form a network of meaning (a “topos”) in the text; this network, in turn, provides a framework for analyzing not only Sarraisine, but all texts. As Barthes guides the reader through the entirety of Balzac’s text, he systematically notes and explains the usage of each of these codes as they occur. The hermeneutic code (HER) denotes the series of questions or enigmas that move the plot forward; it sets up delays and obstacles that maintain suspense. The semic (SEM) code designates a special kind of signifier that marks the development of a theme through the lexia (the language of the text that creates the possibility for its symbolic interpretation) of a story. The symbolic (SYM) code identifies details in the story that are interpreted on a figurative level. The proairetic (ACT) code indicates the actions and behaviors that constitute the plot. The cultural (REF) code references types of knowledge that offer scientific or moral authority.

[edit] Critique

Barthes endeavors to set up a primary structure of character relations in Sarrasine along the lines of gender. However, he subsequently defines the characters not in relation to biological gender, but rather along what he calls the “axis of castration.” The initial categorization of the characters in phallic terms (the men who are the phallus, the women who have the phallus, and the ambiguous group of the androgynous and the castrated) gives way to the division he later constructs between the castrated and castrating, the passive and active. Furthermore, Barthes’s structuralist analysis exposes the fact that Balzac’s text has multiple signifiers that do not refer to one fixed signified. For example, Barthes is fascinated by the nuance of the double entendre, which most clearly fractures the traditional conception of signification: this play on words proffers two distinct and incompatible meanings that must be entertained simultaneously by the reader. The title S/Z refers to the clash between the ‘S’ of ‘Sarrasine,’ the male protagonist of the work, and the ‘Z’ of ‘La Zambinella,’ the castrato with whom Sarrasine falls in love. Sarrasine is an artist who, functioning under the assumption that all beauty is feminine, regards La Zambinella as the epitome of beauty, and therefore as the paradigm of femininity. Sarrasine’s Pygmalion-like sculpted image of the “female” La Zambinella accordingly represents the “complete woman.” This “masterpiece,” however, is highly problematic given its original starting point as a male body—and its refashioning into a female one through the psychological projections and artistic expertise of a man. What ultimately grounds the text is the fundamental destabilization caused by La Zambinella’s anatomy, which is perceived by Sarrasine as masterpiece, origin, and referent: in La Zambinella, therefore, lies Sarrasine’s own potential for castration.

[edit] Bibliography

S/Z By: Coward, Rosalind; pp. 176-81 IN: Newton, K. M. (ed.); Twentieth-Century Literary Theory: A Reader. New York, NY: St. Martin's; 1997. xix, 306 pp. (book article)

Something for Nothing: Barthes in the Text of Ideology By: Elmer, Jonathan; Qui Parle: Literature, Philosophy, Visual Arts, History, 1987 Spring; 1 (2): 48-61. (journal article)

Serre S/Z ine By: Evrard, Franck; Nouvelle Revue Francaise, 1993 July-Aug; 486-487: 190-203. (journal article)

S/Z, Realism, and Compulsory Heterosexuality By: Knight, Diana; pp. 120-36 IN: Cohen, Margaret (ed.); Prendergast, Christopher (ed.); Spectacles of Realism: Body, Gender, Genre. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P; 1995. xiii, 363 pp. (book article)

The Tenor of 'Sarrasine' By: Kolb, Katherine; PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 2005 Oct; 120 (5): 1560-75. (journal article)

S/Z: Barthes' Castration Camp and the Discourse of Polarity By: Lambert, Deborah G.; Modern Language Studies, 1986 Summer; 16 (3): 161-171. (journal article)

Le S/Z de Barthes: Fiction ou interprétation? By: Mozet, Nicole; Magazine Littéraire, 1999 Feb; 373: 62. (journal article)

Castrati, Balzac, and Barthe S/Z By: Noble, Yvonne; Comparative Drama, 1997 Spring; 31 (1): 28-41. (journal article)

Myth and the Writerly in Roland Barthes By: Racker, David; Proceedings of the Philological Association of Louisiana, 1992; 127-32. (journal article)

S/Z Revisited By: Reid, Martine; Yale Journal of Criticism: Interpretation in the Humanities, 2001 Fall; 14 (2): 447-52. (journal article)

Castration, Speech Acts, and the Realist Difference: S/Z versus Sarrasine By: Petrey, Sandy; PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 1987 Mar; 102 (2): 153-65. (journal article)

Sign, Seme, and the Psychological Character: Some Thoughts on Roland Barthes' S/Z and the Realist Novel By: Scheiber, Andrew J.; Journal of Narrative Technique, 1991 Fall; 21 (3): 262-73. (journal article)

What Barthes Couldn't Say: On the Curious Occultation of Homoeroticism in S/Z By: Stewart, Philip; Paragraph: A Journal of Modern Critical Theory, 2001 Mar; 24 (1): 1-16. (journal article)

When S/Z Becomes a Text By: Zimmermann, Eléonore M.; Gradiva: International Journal of Italian Literature, 1987; 4 (1 [5]): 40-47. (journal article)