Abstract
The lecture will be based on excerpts from texts across Barthes' oeuvre, whose connection is primarily thematic: the texts will be devoted to food. We will observe how Barthes's treatment of food changes: insofar as in the early texts writing about food is mostly an appetizer for the ideological critique, in the texts of the middle and late period we can observe a connection with the theme of corporeality.
However, Barthes does not only theorise corporeality through food - for him, writing about food is a means of bringing the reader's own body into the text. The imaginary link between these two ( arguably not sharply delineated) tendencies may ultimately be the notion of the Text: it is akin to a meal that is not prepared behind closed kitchen doors, but instead invites the reader to participate (affectively) in its preparation.