Writing Degree Zero
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Writing Degree Zero (Le Degré zéro de l'écriture, 1953) is a short book published by Roland Barthes.
Roland Barthes determines in Writing Degree Zero that language and style are both matters that appeal to conventions, and are thus not purely creative. Rather, form, or what Barthes calls ‘writing’, the specific way an individual chooses to manipulate conventions of style for a desired effect, is the unique and creative act. One’s form is vulnerable to becoming a convention once it has been made available to the public. This means that being creative is an ongoing process of continual change and reaction. He saw Albert Camus’s The Stranger as an ideal example of this notion for its sincere lack of any embellishment or flair.
