Bringing Out Roland Barthes

by D.A. Miller

In this essay, D. A. Miller offers an album of moments in an imaginary “homosexual encounter” between himself and Roland Barthes. Miller responds to various names, phrases, images, and themes in Barthes’s work that provide him occasions for assessing, across differences of nation and generation, some characteristic strains of modern gay experience.

Genres: Theory

60 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 1992

Reviews

[Sam Albert]

Oof. Went into this with perhaps outsized expectations given the summary but this was unfortunately a major clunker that lost so much of its integrity in theoretically uninspiring and technical language. Genuinely couldn’t have been less of an interesting (or coherent) read but still had some moments of beauty amidst the maelstrom. I also should read S/Z properly shouldn’t I?

[jimmy]

a very rich morsel, read alongside incidents itself, very satisfying

[Skyler]

“For that reason too, I dream of bringing him back.”

[Rafael Pajaro - Rafa]

Not sure I totally got this but felt good to get through all 50-ish pages even if it took 5 days. Took me back to the days that I wanted to study rhetoric and I'm glad I went in a different direction. Interesting read. I think I came to it by Leo Bersani when I had more of a critical edge.