Close Readings: Barthes From Work To Text

“Lucan’s distinction between ‘reality’ and ‘the real’: the one is displayed, the other demonstrated; likewise, the work can be seen (in bookshops, in catalogues, in exam syllabuses), the text is a process of demonstration, speaks according to certain rules (or against certain rules; the work can be held in the hand, the text is held in language only exists in the movement of a discourse.” (157)

The point being made by Barthes in this excerpt of From Work to Text is crucial in understanding the difference between work and text with regards to a piece of visual art. Text, being a collection of ideas and language formed around the concepts behind a work, is demonstrated through the social and historical context represented or associated with the piece. Rather than a physical object, like the work, text is an ever-changing dialect that is highly specific to the viewer and the viewers’ social and historical context. An interpretation made about the physical art object that is the work is what Barthes is calling the text. As Barthes says, the text is demonstrated while the work is displayed. Therefore, the text cannot be reproduced because social, cultural, and historical context (being ideas in language) cannot be reproduced.