French Literature Reviews - 2026

T. Scheie, Performance Degree Zero: Roland Barthes and Theatre
Theatre and Performance

SCHEIE, Timothy, Performance Degree Zero: Roland Barthes and Theatre, University of Toronto Press, 2006, 256 pp.

ISBN: 0802093876

Throughout his career, renowned critical theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980) maintained a complex and often uneasy relationship with theatre and performance. From his early theatrical critiques and his sudden, enigmatic silence on the subject, to the theoretical "stagings" of his ideas in the 1970s, Barthes executed several striking reversals in his views on theatrical performance.

In Performance Degree Zero, Timothy Scheie argues that Barthes's entire oeuvre should be understood as a lifelong dialogue with theatre. Tracing the evolution of his critical methodologies, Scheie offers fresh insight into the rapid transitions across Barthes's intellectual phases—ranging from 1950s Sartrean Marxism and semiology to French post-structuralism and the melancholic introspection of his later years. Theatrical motifs shed light on Barthes's conceptualizations of the sign, the text, the body, homosexuality, love, the voice, photography, and other key, contested concepts within his thought.

Performance Degree Zero provides the first comprehensive study of Barthes's enduring engagement with theatre and performance, successfully filling a significant gap in Barthesian scholarship. It is indispensable reading for scholars of Barthes, theatre historians, and performance theorists alike.

Timothy Scheie is an Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

Roland Barthes remains a central figure in modern literary theory and semiotics, bridging mid-century structuralism and post-structuralist thought. His writings continually investigated how cultural signs construct meaning, moving across diverse theoretical vocabularies from Marxist critique to psychoanalytic inquiry. Within French intellectual history, the relationship between avant-garde literature and performance has frequently preoccupied theorists seeking to interrogate the stability of the text and the authority of the author. Theatricality offers a productive lens for examining these dynamics, allowing critics to question how physical embodiment and staging alter textual reception.

Readers interested in twentieth-century French criticism and theatre history may find this study relevant. Throughout his career, renowned critical theorist Roland Barthes maintained a complex and often uneasy relationship with theatre and performance. From his early theatrical critiques to the theoretical stagings of his ideas, Barthes executed several striking reversals in his views on theatrical performance, engaging in a lifelong dialogue with theatre.