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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page essay that discusses Roland Barthes's intriguing text S/Z, An Essay, which offers an intriguing and insightful view of precisely what occurs when someone "reads" a text, with the term "text" having a broader meaning that encompasses any communicated narrative, i.e., books, movies, TV, etc. Barthes's theory is contrasted with Textual Poachers, in which Henry Jenkins offers a reworking of Barthes's conceptualization of texts, specifically to the idea of the "writerly" text. While Jenkins is basically sympathetic of Barthes's theory, his interpretation of "reading" a text differs primarily in regards to how texts can be "reread." No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khjenbar.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
books, movies, TV, etc. In his book, Textual Poachers, Henry Jenkins offers a reworking of Barthess conceptualization of texts, specifically to the idea of the "writerly" text. While Jenkins is
basically sympathetic of Barthess theory, his interpretation of "reading" a text differs primarily in regards to how texts can be "reread." Jenkins explains Barthes position on this issue by
writing that Barthes indicates that "rereading runs counter to commercial and ideological habits of our society" and, therefore, "books are constructed to sustain" the readers interest on the first reading
with the intended goal of the reader moving on to other narratives, buying different books (Jenkins 67). In other words, it is counter to the goals of capitalism is the
public indulges in "rereading," as this means that texts are reexamined for extended meaning and interpretation. While Barthes privileges the first reading, he nevertheless offers "several useful suggestions about the
process of rereading," such as how the readers understanding of the narrative builds "heavily upon intertextual knowledge" (Jenkins 67). Barthes argues that the "insistent demands of the hermeneutic code...loses
its grip on the reader once the storys resolution becomes fully known" (Jenkins 67). However, in contradiction to Barthes, Jenkins focuses on the phenomenon of fandom, that is, the
consumers who become "fans" of a certain film, TV series, or book and subsequently reread it multiple times. Rather than lose interest due to the resolution of the hermeneutic code,
fans gain interest, which coincides with their increased familiarity on each rereading. In so doing, they cause the text that is the focus of their adoration to switch from being
"readerly" to "writerly" according to Barthess theoretical perspective. In S/Z, Barthes examines a short story by Honore de Balzac, "Sarrasine," in order to illustrate his points regarding these two terms,
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