Two journals, an essay and a novel: “Incidents” and “Soirées de Paris” in the narrative by Roland Barthes

Abstract

In his final years, Barthes spoke publicly about the project of writing a novel with the working title Vita Nova, which imbued the course “The Preparation of the Novel”. During that course he also wrote his last book, Camera Lucida, all while working on the journals “Incidents” and “Soirées de Paris”, possibly intending to integrate them into Vita Nova (PINO, 2010). These journals connect biography to author image, self-image, affection and writing, all of which are implicated in the intended novel. Their formal aspects, especially those pertaining to negotiating the terrain between narrating and providing an account of events, can be of interest in reading Camera Lucida and its proposed relationship between the narrator and the photographs that move his text. This paper outlines the presence of “Incidents” and “Soirées de Paris” in some Camera Lucida’s narrative aspects that may point at writing choices extendable to the novel desired by Barthes.