Barthes’s Perversions: Writing Practices and Neutral Life

In his final period, Roland Barthes desires a new form of life that would enable him to be more attentive to the present moment and to time and change. In this period, since he wants to keep writing, he is also looking for a new form of writing—neutral writing as a counterpart to neutral living. This study examines Barthes’s late penchant for neutrality against the background of his intellectual evolution. It argues that in his final period, Barthes’s writing is an unusual, transformative practice that facilitates his neutrality by helping him shift his perspective on his current life without altering anything about it.