Album: Unpublished Correspondence and Texts

  11. For foreign students at the Centre de Civilisation Française.

  12. Nadeau’s review, Les Lettres nouvelles, and the imprint bearing the same name had just been dropped by their publisher, Éditions Julliard. They would be picked up by Éditions Denoël.

  13. “Situation du linguiste,” regarding Problèmes de linguistique générale (Gallimard, 1966) by Émile Benveniste (1902–76), appeared in the May 15, 1966, issue of La Quinzaine littéraire.

  14. La Quinzaine littéraire published an interview with the philosopher and journalist Jean-François Revel (1924–2006) in the March 1, 1966, issue on the occasion of his candidacy in the general elections, and a text by Lucette Finas on Barthes’s Critique et vérité appeared in the April 15, 1966, issue.

  15. Barthes’s hostility toward Jean-François Revel stemmed from the fact that a harsh satire by Raymond Picard lampooning Barthes was published in Revel’s “Libertés” series from Pauvert in autumn 1965.

  16. An article titled “Plaisir au langage” on the book by Severo Sarduy (1937–93) Écrit en dansant appeared in La Quinzaine littéraire on May 15, 1967.

  17. François Erval (1914–99), coeditor of La Quinzaine at that time, with Maurice Nadeau.

  18. The book appeared in the “Tel Quel” series from Éditions du Seuil in 1969.

  19. This was an important year for Michelet events: the reissue of Histoire de France by Pierre Gaxotte, the beginning of production for Oeuvres complètes (Flammarion), edited by Paul Vialleneix, who published simultaneously his Voie royale: Essai sur l’idée de peuple dans l’oeuvre de Michelet with the same publishing house, and so on.

  20. Maurice Nadeau published a review of Le Plaisir du texte titled “Le Petit Kamasutra de Roland Barthes” in the March 16, 1973, issue of La Quinzaine.

  21. An allusion to a very important article that Maurice Nadeau published on Le Degré zéro de l’écriture twenty years earlier in the July 1953 issue of Les Lettres nouvelles.

  22. Nadeau proposed that Barthes write a review of Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes for La Quinzaine littérarire. Barthes’s article, titled “Barthes puissance trois,” appeared in Nadeau’s journal on March 1, 1975.

  23. Because of financial difficulties that La Quinzaine encountered, Maurice Nadeau organized a sale to support the review; many writers and artists participated by donating manuscripts or, like Barthes, “paintings”—drawings, watercolors, gouaches.

  24. A reference to the “inaugural lesson” at the Collège de France that Barthes would give on January 7, 1977.

  25. Pierre Nora, editor of the human sciences division of Gallimard.

  26. It was Seuil that finally published the inaugural lecture in 1989, under the title of Leçon.

  27. The theme of the debate organized at the Centre Georges-Pompidou in April 1977 was “The Intellectual and Power,” with Leonardo Sciascia participating.

  28. See the first exchange between Barthes and Cayrol in January 1951, p. XXX.

  29. A linguist that Roland Barthes knew through Algirdas Julien Greimas; then teaching at the University of Groningen, Guiraud had lent his house to Barthes for the summer.

  30. See the letter to Robert Voisin from July 19, 1953, p. XXX.

  31. The pages in question are “Pouvoir de la tragédie antique,” which appeared in Théâtre populaire, Robert Voisin’s review, in July–August 1953.

  32. Michelet par lui-même by Barthes would appear in 1954.

  33. Jean Cayrol did not leave Éditions de Seuil at all; he went on to edit the Écrire review there from 1956 to 1966, as well as the collection with that same name. Barthes must be alluding to a vacation Cayrol is taking.

  34. Cayrol lived with his mother in Saint-Chéron, a small village in Essonne, about forty kilometers from Paris.

  35. The uncertainty of the date of this letter makes it difficult to identify Cayrol’s novel. It is probably either Le Démémagement (Seuil, 1956) or La Gaffe (Seuil, 1957).

  36. An allusion to a famous passage from Volupté (1834) by Sainte-Beuve (1804–69) in the novel’s second chapter: “The movement of the trail, the morning freshness of air and sky, the momentum of conversation rising and falling every moment, the self-confidence that is awakened so lightheartedly in such circumstances, a trace of rivalry that, after all, is inevitable in a group of young men and women intoxicated, emboldened me.” Sainte-Beuve, Volupté (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1969), 40–41.

  37. Barthes published in Esprit three articles on Jean Cayrol’s earlier novels, the last of which was on L’Espace d’une nuit (Seuil, 1954) in the July 1954 issue (OC, vol. 1, 506–8).

  38. Barthes is referring to Je vivrai l’amour des autres (Seuil, 1947).

  39. Karl Barth (1886–1968), the great Swiss Protestant theologian whose Christology Barthes defines perfectly here.

  40. Jean Baruzi published Aphorismes de Jean de la Croix (Féret et fils, 1924).

  41. A page is missing.

  42. On Olivier de Meslon, see T. Samoyault, Roland Barthes (Paris: Seuil, 2015), 407.

  43. The “preface,” which will in fact be a postscript, is dated September 1956 by Barthes in his book, and in the manuscript August 20, 1956 (see the letter to Georges Perros from September 1956, p. XXX).

  44. Coup de grâce, written with Claude Durand and produced in 1964, which Barthes saw on January 13 with François Braunschweig, with whom he left for Italy on January 14.

  45. This note was written on a card with the Collège de France letterhead.

  46. This book may be Les Enfants pillards (Seuil, 1978) or Histoire de ciel (Seuil, 1979).

  47. The book in question in Gommes, Robbe-Grillet’s first novel, which had just been published by Éditions de Minuit.

  48. Robert Coiplet was a journalist for Le Monde. Barthes would have direct dealings with him when Mythologies appeared (see the letter to Jean Lacroix from May 11, 1957, p. XXX).

  49. Bernard Dort, for example, would explain that Les Gommes is “halfway between Simenon and Joyce” (Les Temps modernes, January 1954).

  50. The review Écrire was founded three years later in 1956 by Jean Cayrol and its last issues would appear in 1966.

  51. Robbe-Grillet then lived in Brest, Brittany, in Kerangoff to be precise, one of the city’s suburbs, where his family home was located.

  52. Robbe-Grillet was writing many short stories then, some of which would appear in La Nouvelle NRF in 1954 and the years that followed, and then would be reprinted in Instantanés (Minuit, 1962).

  53. Barthes discusses Les Gommes for the first time in “Pré-romans,” France Observateur, June 24, 1954 (OC, vol. 1, 500–2); the text solicited by Piel was published in the July–August 1954 issue of Critique under the title “Littérature objective,” and reprinted in Essais critique (OC, vol. 2, 293–303).

  54. Le Degré zéro de l’écriture, published in 1953; since Robbe-Grillet never published anything on Barthes’s book, this must refer to one of the letters in their correspondence.

  55. In the September-October 1955 issue of Critique, Barthes published “Littérature littérale” on Robbe-Grillet’s Voyeur; this text was reprinted in Essais critiques (OC, vol. 2, 325–31).

  56. A strip-tease club frequented, for example, by Raymond Queneau in the same era: Queneau, Journaux, 1914–1965 (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), 903. Barthes discusses the Moulin Rouge strip-tease competition and Robbe-Grillet’s Voyeur (Minuit, 1955) in the “mythology” titled “Strip-tease” (Les Lettres nouvelles, December 1955; reprinted in Mythologies; OC, vol. 1, 785–88).

  57. This mythology was very severe with regard to the round table practices of Robbe-Grillet and was not reprinted in Mythologies (OC, vol. 1, 960–62).

  58. See the letter to Michel Butor from June 6, 1960, p. XXX, in which Roland Barthes announces to his correspondent that he supported Yves Velan’s novel for the Médicis prize, prompting anger from Alain Robbe-Grillet. Through Bernard Dort’s indiscretion, Robbe-Grillet knew that Barthes had reservations about L’Année dernière à Marien
bad, a film released in 1961 (Catherine Robbe-Grillet, Jeune mariée: Journal, 1957–1962 [Fayard, 2004], 416). See also the letter from September 17, 1961, to Jean Piel, p. XXX, in which Barthes says he is abandoning the idea of discussing this work in Critique; the question will arise obliquely nevertheless in Bruce Morrissette’s preface to Romans de Robbe-Grillet (Minuit, 1963). (OC, vol. 2, 458–59).

  59. Projet pour une révolution à New York appeared in November 1970 from Éditions de Minuit.

  60. Michel Butor and Georges Perros, Correspondance, 1955–1978 (Nantes: Joseph K., 1996). In this correspondence, Barthes is often the subject (see the letters from Roland Barthes to Georges Perros, p. XXX). The correspondence between Michel Butor and Pierre Klossowski is forthcoming.

  61. Barthes’s text on Mobile is “Littérature et discontinu” (1962), reprinted in Essais critiques (OC, vol. 2, 430–41).

  62. The content of this letter involves the Hungarian uprising in October 1956 against the Communist regime, which led to extremely important critical reflection by the Marxist intelligentsia in opposition to the Soviet system, in which the question of the nature of the Soviet Union is indeed posed—degenerate worker state or state capitalism, for example.

  63. An allusion to Switzerland, where Michel Butor then lived and taught at the École Internationale in Geneva.

  64. Georges Friedmann (1902–77) then taught at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. It was with him and Edgar Morin that Barthes would establish the Centre d’Études des Communications de Masse in 1960.

  65. Poulot was the real name of Georges Perros.

  66. The postcard on the back of which Barthes wrote shows Rembrandt’s Saul and David (Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1657).

  67. Butor was then traveling in Greece with his wife. See Butor and Perros, Correspondance, 22.

  68. Barthes had just published “Dire Racine” in the March 1958 issue of Théâtre populaire and was working on the prefaces he had to write for the complete collection of Racine’s plays in 1960; see Barthes, Sur Racine (Paris: Seuil, 1963).

  69. Roland Barthes had to go to the United States that summer to teach there (see the following letter). Claude Bourcier’s visit was part of the preparation for the stay. Michel Butor did indeed visit Middlebury College in 1960.

  70. Middlebury College is located in Vermont. Butor taught there as well (see the letter from Michel Butor from February 16, 1960, p. XXX). Barthes’s only reference to this experience appears in a remark during the Cerisy Colloquium: Antoine Compagnon, Prétexte: Roland Barthes (Paris: UGE, 1978), 413. One can also refer to the account by Richard Howard, friend and American translator of Barthes, in Steven Ungar and Betty R. McGraw, eds., Signs in Culture: Roland Barthes Today (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1989) 32. However, Howard makes a mistake in dating Barthes’s first visit as 1957.

  71. Roland Barthes will use the critical pretext of a Bernard Buffet exhibition to sing the praises of New York in “New York, Buffet et la hauteur,” Arts, February 1959 (OC, vol. 1, 937–39).

  72. Barthes went to stay with Vinaver many times in his chalet in Haute-Savoie (see the letter to Vinaver from the preceding year, p. XXX).

  73. Perhaps a reference to Richard Howard.

  74. Degrés was published by Gallimard in 1960. Butor cites this letter from Barthes in a letter to Perros. Butor and Perros, Correspondance, 42.

  75. In a talk at Royaumont in 1959 Butor explained his progression from philosophy (his first area of study) to the novel: Butor, Répertoire (Paris: Minuit, 1960), 271–74.

  76. “Histoire ou Littérature?” Annales, May-June 1960; reprinted in Sur Racine.

  77. Michel Butor was then teaching at Bryn Mawr College in the greater Philadelphia area.

  78. Marie-Jo Butor (1932–2010), Michel Butor’s wife.

  79. Cécile Butor is one of Michel Butor’s four daughters; she appears in Boomerang (Gallimard, 1978), a book about the trip to the United States.

  80. See the letter that Georges Perros sent to Michel Butor a few days earlier. Butor and Perros, Correspondance, 41–42.

  81. Papiers collés appeared from Gallimard in March 1960.

  82. Denise Klossowski, née Morin, was the model for Roberte, Pierre Klossowski’s heroine. The couple lived on Rue de Canivet near Rue Servandone, and then at Cour de Rohan, and Barthes often played piano with Pierre Klossowski’s wife.

  83. The birth of Agnès Butor.

  84. Claude Bourcier and Vincent Guilloton were in charge of the French Summer School at Middlebury College where Butor was going to teach.

  85. Again, the book in question is Georges Perros’s Papiers collés, published in March 1960.

  86. Tania Perros is the wife of Georges Perros, whose life, practically and financially, was quite difficult then. Butor and Perros, Correspondance, 47–48. Tania would have a miscarriage (56).

  87. Illegible.

  88. In reality, the genesis of Système de la mode will be less smooth; Barthes did not actually finish writing it until April 1964, and it was not published until 1967.

  89. Marthe Robert published Kafka with Gallimard in 1960, on which Barthes wrote an article in France Observateur in 1960, “La réponse de Kafka,” reprinted in Essais critiques (OC, vol. 2, 395–99).

  90. Yves Velan won the Prix de Mai in 1960 for Je (Seuil, 1959). Roland Barthes devoted an article in Critique to this novel, “Ouvriers et pasteurs,” reprinted in Essais critiques (OC, vol. 2, 389–94).

  91. Georges Perros and Pierre Klossowski.

  92. Klossowski published Roberte, ce soir in 1953 and La Révocation de l’édit de Nantes in 1959 with Éditions de Minuit, then Le Souffleur, or le Théâtre de société in 1960 with Pauvert.

  93. See Barthes’s letters to Perros, p. XXX.

  94. Barthes was in North America from January 15 to February 5, 1961, when he went to Montreal to work on a film on sports with Hubert Aquin, Le Sport et les hommes, released in 1959. The text of the film was published by Presses Universitaires de Montréal in 2004.

  95. Robert Kanters (1910–85), a writer and critic born in Belgium who was very hostile to modernity and the new novel, wrote a very negative review of Mobile: “L’Amérique en butorama,” Le Figaro littéraire, March 2, 1962.

  96. Barthes published an important article on Mobile in Critique in 1962, reprinted in Essais critiques (OC, vol. 2, 430–41).

  97. Francisque Sarcey (1827–99), a fundamentally reactionary French critic and journalist.

  98. Butor was in the United States.

  99. The “Revue internationale” is the focus of Barthes’s correspondence with Blanchot; Butor participated in it, as is evident from Dionys Mascolo’s letter from December 5, 1962. See “Le dossier de la ‘Revue internationale,’ ” Lignes, September 1990, 264–65.

  100. The subject of Barthes’s seminar that year was “An inventory of contemporary systems of signification: systems of objects (clothing, food, lodging).”

  101. Quotation inspired by Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort, who wrote: “Nearly all men are slaves for the reason the Spartans gave for the Persians’ servitude: for lack of knowing how to pronounce the syllable ‘no.’ ” Chamfort, Maximes et pensées, 1795.

  102. Butor and his family had just settled in West Berlin thanks to a grant from the Ford Foundation.

  103. See the exchange on this subject between Butor and Perros with regard to Barthes the writer. Butor and Perros, Correspondance, 159–60.

  104. Essais critiques had just appeared.

  105. René Marill Albérès (1921–82) published a monograph that year on Butor with Éditions Universitaires.

  106. Georges Perros.

  107. Illegible.

  108. Butor wrote the preface for Montaigne’s Essais in three volumes for the UGE “10/18” collection, published in 1964.

  109. Élisabeth was the daughter of his wife Tania. See Butor and Perros, Correspondance, 173.

  110. The subject of Barthes’s seminar that year was “Research on Rhetoric.”

/>   111. That is, the “point to judge” that Quintilian classifies according to conjecture, definition, and quality. “L’Ancienne rhétorique, aide-mémoire,” in OC, vol. 3, 527–601.

  112. Paris: Gallimard, 1964.

  113. This is the dispute set off by the appearance of a violent tract by Raymond Picard, Nouvelle critique ou nouvelle imposture (Pauvert, 1965), against Barthes’s Sur Racine, published in 1963. It was resolved with the publication of Critique et vérité in 1966.

  114. Butor came to the March 10 session of the seminar.

  115. Critique et vérité.

  116. It is more a matter of Butor playing with graphics than actual cross-outs.

  117. Barthes is writing on the back of a postcard showing Shugakuin, Kyoto’s very famous imperial palace.

  118. Mathilde.

  119. Maurice Pinguet (see his letters, p. XXX).

  120. Barthes left for a year to teach at the University of Rabat.

  121. In early 1970, Butor published La Rose des vents: 32 Rhumbs pour Charles Fourier with Gallimard. Barthes would have read a manuscript of Butor’s text.

  122. Barthes had just published “Vivre avec Fourier” in Critique in October 1970 (reprinted in Sade, Fourier, Loyola in 1971).

  123. Butor moved to Saint-Laurent-du-Var because he was then teaching at the University of Nice.

  124. The statute of the École Pratique des Hautes Études allows the director of studies to advise theses without having a doctorate himself, which was the case with Barthes.

  125. See the correspondence with Jean Starobinski, who invited Barthes to teach in Geneva, p. XXX.

  126. For Sade, Fourier, Loyola.

  127. Barthes was a member of the jury from 1973 on.

  128. Michel Butel won the Médici prize for L’Autre Amour, and Hector Bianciotti won the foreign prize for Le Traité des saisions.

  129. The letters from Roland Barthes to Jean Piel are in the Jean Piel collection held at the IMEC. Here we are using the transcription made by Sylvie Patron as an appendix to her thesis on the Critique review, defended in 1996 at the University of Paris 7, from which is extracted her work Critique, 1946–1996: Une Encyclopédie de l’esprit moderne (Éditions de l’IMEC, 1999) and which includes many pages on Roland Barthes (for example, 115–24).