Barthes, le récit, la saisie esthétique. Petite relecture du « Sarrasine » de Balzac

Abstract

Roland Barthes has written a lot about narrative. But can we say that he was really interested in it? that he grasped its profound formal articulation and its anthropological values? who perceived the theoretical interest, beyond literary narrative itself, of its methodological consequence, narrativity? The answers are not as obvious as they may seem. On the one hand, thanks also to his writings, in the paradigm of the humanities - despite the continuous epiphanies of a resurgent positivism - no one doubts that the narrative form is hermeneutic model essential to the general understanding of social and anthropological phenomena. On the other hand, Barthes' attitude towards narrative is far from clear and seems to seems to evade, rather than investigate, the fundamental question of its central role in the construction, transformation and translation of cultures.