Theatrical Utopia. A journey through the work of Roland Barthes

Abstract

The work of Roland Barthes oscillates between modernity and classicism. However, far from considering that one must take sides and choose one’s own conception of Roland Barthes. It is a question of thinking the link in a dynamic relationship between these two poles through the prism of the notion of utopia, which itself oscillates between a form of return to a previous state of nature and the construction of an ideal program to come. Indeed, we can think with Diana Knight in her book, Barthes and Utopia : Space, Travail, Writing, that utopia is a central theme in the work of Barthes which makes his writing anchored in his own modernity but also in ours. Utopia is a concept with two legs: one practical and political and the other theoretical. As such, we consider that this duality proper to this notion from the book of Thomas More built in two inseparable parts one of the other, explains in part the oscillation which animates the work of the French critic. Throughout this article, we will examine the links between utopia, theater, sexuality and love in the work of Roland Barthes by following the “phases” while attempting to identify transverse and linear structures that seek to challenge the monolithic dimension of these “phases”.