Ecriture and language reform

Abstract

Often misread as a document of semiotics, Barthes' S/Z rejects every concern with a generalisation of semantics in favour of a novel theory of syntax. This latter is construed as a rewriting of a text in order to foreground syntactical rather than semantical referential devices. The result is an implicit contrast between a manifest and a latent level of syntactic organisation, showing realism to be the corrigible result of a semantic/referential organisa­tion designed to deny its overdetermination by a syntactic order. Barthes' attempt to elucidate latent syntactic order is compared to identical procedures in the writers asso­ciated with the critique of metaphysics in the name of formal logic. Every attempt to deploy reading to the end of foregrounding latent syntactical devices is argued to be inescapably imbricated in an idealisation of the object language. The syntax thus elaborated is won at the expense of effacing the material coordinates of the signifier which it organises. An alternative mode of investigating latent syntactical properties which is neither semiological nor reconstructionistic is required. Such a procedure may be found outlined in the work of Quine and of Foucault.

Opsomming
Hoewel dit dikwels verkeerdelik as 'n semiotiese geskrif gelees word, verwerp Barthes se S/Zveralgemenings oor semantiek. Dit bied 'n nuwe teorie oor sintaksis wat gesien word as 'n herskrywing van 'n teks om referensiele middele uit te lig. Die resultaat is 'n implisiete teenstelling tussen ooglopende en latente vlakke van semantiese organisasie. Barthes se verduideliking van lg. vlak word vergelyk met die skrywers wat verbind word met die metafisiese kritiek, gekoppel aan die formele logika. Die betrokke sintaksis word behandel en 'n alternatiewe metode om dit te ondersoek word voorgestel, gebaseer op die werk van Quine en Foucault.