ROLANDBARTHESTHEDISCOURSEOFHISTORY.docx

ROLANDBARTHESTHEDISCOURSEOFHISTORY.docx

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ROLANDBARTHESTHEDISCOURSEOFHISTORY

ROLANDBARTHESTHEDISCOURSEOF

HISTORY,translatedbyStephenBann.ComparativeCriticism,3（1981）:

7-20.Pagination,superscripts,andaccentsarenotpreserved・Pleaseseesourceforthefinalthreenotes.

Theformaldescriptionofsetsofwordsbeyondthelevelofthesentence（whatwecallforconveniencediscourse）isnotamoderndevelopment:

fromGorgiastothenineteenthcentury,itwasthespecialconcernoftraditionalrhetoric・Recentdevelopmentsinthescienceoflanguagehavenonethelessendoweditwithanewtimelinessandnewmethodsofanalysis:

alinguisticdescriptionofdiscoursecanperhapsalreadybeenvisagedatthisstage;becauseofitsbearingsonliteraryanalysis（whoseimportanceineducationiswellknown）itisoneofthefirstassignmentsforsemiologytoundertake.

Thissecondleveloflinguistics,whichmustlookfortheuniversalsofdiscourse（iftheyexist）undertheformofunitsandgeneralrulesofcombination,mustatthesametimeobviouslygiveananswertothequestionwhetherstructuralanalysisisjustifiedinretainingthetraditionaltypologyofdiscourses;whetheritisfullylegitimatetomakeaconstantoppositionbetweenthediscoursesofpoetryandthenovel,thefictionalnarrativeandthehistoricalnarrative.Itisthelastpointwhichgivesrisetothereflectionssetdownhere・Doesthenarrationofpastevents,which,inourculturefromthetimeoftheGreeksonwards,hasgenerallybeensubjecttothesanctionofhistoricalscience1,boundtotheunbendingstandardoftherreal\andjustifiedbytheprinciplesofrational1exposition-doesthisformofnarrationreallydiffer,insomespecifictrait,insomeindubitablydistinctivefeature,fromimaginarynarration,aswefinditintheepic,thenovel,andthedrama?

Andifthistraitorfeatureexists,theninwhatlevelofthehistoricalstatementmustitbeplaced?

（l）Inordertosuggestareplytothisquestion,weshallherebelooking,inafreeandfarfromexhaustivefashion,atthediscourseofanumberofgreatclassichistorians:

Herodotus,Machiavelli,BossuetandMichelet.

I.THEACTOFUTTERING

Firstofall,wemayaskunderwhatconditionstheclassichistorianisenabled-orauthorized-himselftodesignate,inhisdiscourse,theactbywhichhepromulgatesit.Inotherwords,what,onthelevelofdiscourse-andnotoflanguage,aretheshifters（inJakobsonssenseoftheterm）

（2）whichassurethetransitionfromtheutterancetotheactofuttering（orviceversa）?

Itwouldappearthathistoricaldiscourseinvolvestworegulartypesofshifters.Thefirsttypecompriseswhatwemightcalltheshiftersoflistening.ThiscategoryhasbeenidentifiedbyJakobson,ontheleveloflanguage,withthetermtestimonialaccordingtotheformulaCeCal/Caa2:

inadditiontotheeventreported（Ce）,discoursementionsatthesametimetheactoftheinformer（Cal）,andthespeechoftheuttererwhichisrelatedtoit（Ca2）.Thisformofshifterthusdesignatesanyreferencetothehistorianslistening,collectingtestimonyfromelsewhereandtellingitinhisowndiscourse・Listeningmadeexplicitrepresentsachoice,foritispossiblenottorefertoitatall;itbringsthehistorianclosertotheanthropologist,insofarashementionsthesourceofhisinformation.Thuswefindanabundantuseofthisshifteroflisteningamonghistorian/anthropologistslikeHerodotus.Theformsvary:

theyrangefromphrasesofthetypeofasIhaveheard,ortomyknowledge,tothehistorian'suseofthepresenttensewhichtestifiestotheinterventionoftheutterer,andtoanymentionofthehistorianspersonalexperience・SuchisthecasewithMichelet,who'listensto*theHistoryofFranceasaresultofanoverwhelmingpersonalexperience（oftheRevolutionofJuly1830）andtakesaccountofthisinhisdiscourse・Thelisteningshifterisobviouslynotdistinctivetohistoricaldiscourse:

itisfoundfrequentlyinconversation,andincertainexpositorydevicesusedinthenovel（suchasanecdoteswhicharetakenfromfictionalsourcesofinformationmentionedinthetext）.

Thesecondtypeofshiftercomprisesalltheexplicitsignswherebytheutterer-inthiscase,thehistorian・organizeshisowndiscourse,takingupthethreadormodifyinghisapproachinsomewayinthecourseofnarration:

thatistosay,whereheprovidesexplicitpointsofreferenceinthetext.Thisisanimportanttypeofshifter,andtherecanbemanydifferentwaysoforganizing1discourseaccordingly;butthesedifferentinstancescanallbesubsumedundertheprinciplethateachshifterindicatesamovementofthediscourseinrelationtoitsmatter,ormorepreciselyamovementinrelationtothesequenceofitsmatter,ratherliketheoperationofthetemporalandlocationaldeictics'hereis/thereis：

Thuswecanciteascaseswheretheshifteraffectstheflowo