«Как жить вместе» — первый из трех лекционных курсов, прочитанных Роланом Бартом (1915–1980) в парижском Коллеж де Франс в конце 1970-х годов. В настоящем издании собраны посмертно опубликованные авторские конспекты лекций, в которых Барт, опираясь на данные разных наук (истории, философии, социологии, семиологии, психологии, психоанализа и т. д.) и на произведения художественной литературы, исследует отношения людей, живущих вместе, а также возникающие в таких обстоятельствах модели поведения и осмысления мира. Важным, хотя и не единственным источником фактического материала служит история монашества в Западной Европе, на Ближнем Востоке и в Азии. В новом издании впервые на русском публикуется конспект семинара «Что значит „держать речь“?», который Барт вел параллельно с курсом лекций. На занятиях ставился вопрос о «факторах устрашения в языке» и давался подробный анализ речи барона де Шарлюса из романа «Сторона Германтов» Марселя Пруста. Конспекты лекций дополнены сопроводительными статьями, комментариями и указателями.
Roland Barthes of France applied semiology, the study of signs and symbols, to literary and social criticism.
Ideas of Roland Gérard Barthes, a theorist, philosopher, and linguist, explored a diverse range of fields. He influenced the development of schools of theory, including design, anthropology, and poststructuralism.
Una cascada de ideas, mucho más denso que una lluvia. A mí me sirvió para pensar el ritmo individual, aunque tomé anotes durante toda la lectura, es muy rico, complicado e interesante.
Found this as part of my search for books that talk about people living together and honestly, if it weren't for the title, I'm not sure I would have realized what was the main theme of this work. It's extremely dense, scholarly to the point of being nearly incomprehensible, and utterly disjointed (to call it experimental would be generous).
In structure, it is a series of lectures, but really, it's only the lecturer's notes, with many sentence fragments and notations in place of words. Barthes chose pertinent traits related to the theme of "living together" and presented these traits in alphabetical order so that they "would not be inlfeted with a predetermined overall meaning." I would argue this method of presentation obscured the overall meaning almost entirely. Honestly, one reads/consults experts precisely BECAUSE they are able to bring order to the chaos, but apparently Barthes would not agree.
Despite the disorder, I did read the whole thing, sensing there were some fascinating ideas here if only I were smart enough to find them. Barthes presents "idiorrhythmy"--where people live together but according to their own rhythm--as a concept growing out of various monastic traditions across the centuries. In some traditions, monks lives are highly regulated (rhythmic) but in others, particularly Eastern traditions, monks are free to live at their own particular rhythm. There's flexibility in terms of where you eat, but usually all monks are expected to join together in a communal meal at some regular interval (weekly, monthly, annually). Even prayers are optional. To have idiorrhythmy, Barthes contends there should be "a negative relationship to power" (ie no abbot in the monastery). One solution to the power vacuum is to have people take turns "ruling" but that can cause "chaos, frictions, conflicts."
At one point Barthes examines how people fantasize about choosing a group of people they would want to live together with. He then points out that by choosing some people, others are necessarily excluded. How do we justify these "pariahs?" He notes that even in being rejected, these individuals retain a sort of status in the community.
His studies of different monastic groups show that the optimal number of members in an idiorrhythmic group is somewhere between ten and thirty. But even in tightly knit groups, each individual needs space--interindividual distance. We want to be surrounded by a few people, but not too many.
In sum, I found a few takeaways about how to live together, but I fear I was unable to comprehend about 90% of this strange book.