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: Emile Zola's Pot-Bouille, set in a Parisian apartment building; Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, which takes place in a sanatorium; Andre Gide's La Sequestree 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.

Nothing could be less professorial than Roland Barthes' first course at the College de France: his fantasmatic method yields a daringly idiosyncratic exploration of 'idiorrhythmy,' the spaces and rhythms of life, and ways of balancing community and individuality, from medieval anchorite monks and Robinson Crusoe to the sanatorium of The Magic Mountain. -- Jonathan Culler, Cornell University

About the Author
Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician whose 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. His books include The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Courses and Seminars at the College de France (1978-1979 and 1979-1980); The Neutral: Lecture Course at the College de France (1977-1978); Mythologies; S/Z; A Lover's Discourse; and Camera Lucida. 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
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



Book Information
ISBN 9780231136174
Author Roland Barthes
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press