Barthes on the Beach

Abstract

Abstract:In his essay "The Writer on Holiday" ("L'Écrivain en vacances"), published in Mythologies, Barthes seems to denounce the bourgeois sacralization of the "Writer" who, even on vacation, is incapable of not working. But, in reality here, Barthes isn't referring to writers in general. He is talking about himself—and his own difficult (almost melancholic) relationship with laziness, which he has discussed in other autobiographical texts and interviews.