Coming into class on Wednesday, I was really apprehensive about my understanding of the reading, especially Roland Barthes, however after reviewing the material in class, Barthes' The Pleasure of the Text, became much more comprehensible. What I found to be really interesting about Barthes, was that his text became an example of what he was trying to instill in the reader. For example, Barthes begins The Pleasure of the Text, by stating "Is it not the most erotic portion of a body where the garment gapes?" (108). As we discussed in class, what he means by this is that the most revealing part of the body, is the small gap between, let's say, two articles of clothing, or in the case of our class discussion, the part of Marilyn Monroe's body not covered by her dress. It is this gap that we talked about in class, that is significant to Barthes' work. In order to understand what he is saying in his text, we need to read between the lines. Or, in other words, the most pleasurable part of his text, as with others, is not what is said, but instead falls within the gap of what he actually says.
With that in mind, it is so much easier to understand Barthes and the concept of jouissance -- the idea that text can be fun and pleasurable...a tease if you will. Another example of reading between the lines, and focusing on the message in the gap is tmesis. As Barthes stated, "Tmesis is a seam or flaw resulting from a simple principle of functionality" (108-109), however, in class we described it as "interjecting in the middle of something." This illustrates Barthes idea of the gap being the most important part of the text, yet in a more comprehensible way. Thankfully, Wednesday's class made Barthes' concepts and text that much easier to understand. What I was missing when I was reading The Pleasure of the Text, was exactly what I was supposed to be comprehending -- that the most important aspect of the text comes not from what you read, but from what you interpret.
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