Incidents

The essays collected in Incidents, originally published in French shortly after Barthes' death, provide unique insight into the author's life, his personal struggles and his delights. Though Barthes questioned the act of keeping a journal with the aim of having it published, he decided to undertake a diary-like experiment in four parts. The first, 'The Light of the Southwest', is an ode to Barthes' favourite region in France. The second, which gives the collection its title, is a revealing personal account of his time living in Morocco, while in 'At Le Palace Tonight ...', Barthes describes a vibrant Paris entertainment spot. Finally, the journal entries of 'Evenings in Paris' reveal Barthes as an older gay man, struggling with his desire for young lovers. Rendered here in a fresh and lyrical translation, Incidents will delight fans of Barthes' other works, as well as anyone curious for a look inside the mind of one of twentieth century's foremost intellectuals.

"The autobiographical pieces of
Incidents give us a new Barthes: not the famous writer who happens to be a gay man, but the gay man who happens to be a famous writer. This is the other face of fame: bravely endured soirées parisiennes during which the aging gay celebrity is constantly surrounded and almost never desired. D. A. Miller's brilliantly militant essay relieves us of the embarrassment such images might cause us. . . . His critical mémoires d'outre tombe should make it impossible for us ever again to ignore discreetly Barthes's homosexuality when we speak of his strength."—Leo Bersani, author of The Culture of Redemption

Publishers Weekly

One of Barthes's most influential ideas is in distinguishing between texts that ask the reader to simply accept the author's words and those that involve the reader as a kind of co-author. Incidents, a new translation of personal essays originally published posthumously in 1987, falls, like all of Barthes's work, into the latter category. Three out of the four pieces are essentially journal entries-short -hand, non-linear vignettes-giving readers little choice but to insert themselves into the gaps. Even in his more scholarly work, Barthes often preferred list-like entries to conventional essays. And while the subjects here-his feelings about the landscape of his childhood, his desire for Moroccan boys, an unsatisfying social life populated by "gigolos" and intellectuals-are more personal (and more sexually explicit), the connection between the two is clear. There's pleasure in Barthes's ability to connect things that until that moment seemed separate, but the book, inflated by Bishan Samaddar's photographs, feels a bit like a vanity project. If reading is work-deep, playful, and satisfying-better to spend time with Barthes's explications of reading and writing, literature and images, or, for those who crave the personal, his fascinating Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes. Photos.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was one of France's most influential and eloquent literary critics and theoreticians of language and society. His books have been widely translated into English. Richard Howard, poet, translator, and Professor of English at the University of Houston, has translated ten of Barthes's works.