How to Live Together

Novelistic Simulations of Some Everyday Spaces

Roland Barthes, Kate Briggs

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English

Columbia University Press
18 December 2012

Philosophy; Cultural studies; Social groups; Sociology: family & relationships

Series: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism

In The Preparation of the Novel, a collection of lectures delivered at a defining moment in Roland Barthes's career (and completed just weeks before his death), the critic spoke of his struggle to discover a different way of writing and a new approach to life. The Neutral preceded this work, containing Barthes's challenge to the classic oppositions of Western thought and his effort to establish new pathways of meaning. How to Live Together predates both of these achievements, a series of lectures exploring solitude and the degree of contact necessary for individuals to exist and create at their own pace. A distinct project that sets the tone for his subsequent lectures, How to Live Together is a key introduction to Barthes's pedagogical methods and critical worldview.

In this work, Barthes focuses on the concept of ""idiorrhythmy,"" a productive form of living together in which one recognizes and respects the individual rhythms of the other. He explores this phenomenon through five texts that represent different living spaces and their associated ways of life: Émile Zola's Pot-Bouille, set in a Parisian apartment building; Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, which takes place in a sanatorium; André Gide's La Séquestrée de Poitiers, based on the true story of a woman confined to her bedroom; Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, about a castaway on a remote island; and Pallidius's Lausiac History, detailing the ascetic lives of the desert fathers.

As with his previous lecture books, How to Live Together exemplifies Barthes's singular approach to teaching, in which he invites his audience to investigate with him-or for him-and wholly incorporates his listeners into his discoveries. Rich with playful observations and suggestive prose, How to Live Together orients English-speaking readers to the full power of Barthes's intellectual adventures.

By: Roland Barthes
Translated by: Kate Briggs
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 254mm, Width: 178mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780231136174
ISBN 10: 023113617X
Series: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 18 December 2012
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Roland Barthes (1915--1980) was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His books include The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Courses and Seminars at the College de France (1978--1979 and 1979--1980); The Neutral; Mythologies; S/Z; A Lover's Discourse; and Camera Lucida. Barthes's work has been central to the delineation and development of numerous schools of theory, including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology, and post-structuralism. Kate Briggs is the translator of Roland Barthes's The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Courses and Seminars at the College de France (1978--1979 and 1979--1980).

Reviews for How to Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of Some Everyday Spaces

This is Roland Barthes at his inventive and idiosyncratic best: a brilliant and suggestive reader, both of literary texts and the social, psychic, and affective spaces of everyday life. -- Diana Knight, University of Nottingham