Roland Barthes’s Michelet in Esprit magazine

Abstract

Before publishing his debut book, Le degré zéro de l’écriture, in 1953, Roland Barthes experimented with writing as a critic-essayist in some journals of French intellectuals, such as the newspapers Combat, organ of the Resistance, and L’Observateur, and the magazines Existences and Esprit. Founded by Emmanuel Mounier and directed by Albert Béguin, Esprit welcomed Barthes in 1951, and kept him as a contributor until 1971. Between 1951 and 1953, Barthes published six texts on the pages of the magazine. Still in 1951, our critic wrote a study on the historian Jules Michelet, “Michelet, l’Histoire et la Mort”, which would be recovered and recast in his 1954 book, Michelet par lui-même. In this work, we will read this text in order to identify some of the permanencies and transformations undertaken by Barthes when collecting these preparatory and experimental reflections, and when organizing his Michelet.