This experimental paper proposes a shared exploration of the crease as a tactile, existential, and artistic phenomenon. It takes Roland Barthes’ definition of his left-handedness as “a tenuous and persistent crease” as a basis. Hence, this phenomenon is a minor but stubborn mark on the self, a superficial matter. In order to portray an intimate and personal approach to the subject, this paper is written in first person. This “I”, though, is plural, a result of a collaboration. As part of (...) the methodology developed to create this polyphonic voice, the paper is structured in a non-linear fashion. After each section, the reader can choose how to proceed. The imposed choices reveal the materiality of the text - they establish points of friction and awareness for a reader; and weave different discursive lines and surfaces. The aim is to allow the format to contribute to the definition of the crease, beyond images and excerpts in the content. (shrink)

In his inaugural lecture at the Collège de France, Barthes introduced the fantasy as an important epistemological tool for the reading strategy he would try to develop in his lecture courses. The notion of fantasy oscillates between two important, but apparently irreconcilable intertexts: Lacanian psychoanalysis and Nietzschean philosophy. True to his desire for the Neutral, Barthes refused to choose between them and instead searched for a third term which would outplay the opposition. I argue that Barthes finally found this term (...) in a revaluation of the imaginary and a plea for a return of the repressed ‘ego’ in literary theory, a ‘romanesque’ ego, which ‘writes’ itself in the search for a readable oeuvre. (shrink)