Synopses & Reviews
In 1979, just after having written skeptically on the question of whether a journal was worth keeping "with a view to publication," Roland Barthes began to keep an intimate journal called "Soirées de Paris" in which he gave direct notation to his gay desire in its various states of excitation, panic, and despair. Together with three other uncollected texts by Barthes, including an earlier journal he kept in Morocco, this remarkable document was published in France after its author's death under the title of
Incidents. Richard Howard's translation now makes the volume available to readers of English.
"I gave him some money, he promised to be at the rendezvous an hour later, and of course never showed up. I asked myself if I was really so mistaken (the received wisdom about giving money to a hustler in advance!) and concluded that since I really didn't want him all that much (nor even to make love), the result was the same: sex or no sex, at eight o'clock I would find myself back at the same point in my life."from Incidents
Synopsis
"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
About the Author
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.