Writing degree zero: Roland Barthes in Combat

Abstract

In 1946, after a long reclusive season due to tuberculosis, Roland Barthes finds himself in a rut with the effervescent French intellectual atmosphere of the mid-20th century. Attracted by literature since high school and attentive to the debates that emerged in the press and in academia, he published in 1947, on the literary page of the newspaper Combat, an article entitled “Writing degree zero”. Released in 1953, Barthes’ first book of the same title was organized based on some articles published in the pages of Combat in 1947, 1950 and 1951. In this article, we will read these texts in order to understand some of the continuities and transformations woven in the composition of his first book, where we find a history of literary signs and a debate towards the new French literary criticism.