Dialogues between Roland Barthes and Maurice Blanchot: writing degree zero in a book to come

Abstract

Roland Barthes was a plural man. He wrote an extensive work and established himself as a great reference in literary studies. He also talked about fashion, photography, theater and Eastern cultures. The body of his work has inspired and opened a dialogue with other authors of his time, Maurice Blanchot, for instance. Unlike Barthes, he was shy and reserved. However, he is considered one of the greatest literary critics of the twentieth century. The book to come has clear references in an entire chapter devoted to Writing degree zero, from Barthes. The relation between the two authors can be established through the common points of their research, namely the search of what Barthes calls “white writing” and Blanchot calls “neutral”, which is a writing free of ideologies, impersonal, absent . This paper aims to analyze how this dialogue took place, what is writing degree zero, what are the other barthesian  ideas studied by Maurice Blanchot, such as the distinction between language, writing and style, and how he interpreted them.