Il Neutre barthesiano in un’ottica di genere. Rappresentazioni del femminile in Le Figaro, Le Monde, Libération

Abstract

Between 1977 and 1978, Roland Barthes taught a course at the Collège de France during wich he stated that Neutre (Neuter) is what results from neutralising the dichotomy which opposes term A to term B and by carrying out two different operations: either “not A nor B” or “A+B”. Such a definition of Neutre is in contrast with what is generally meant by “neutre”, i.e. neutral, inactive and colourless.
Indeed, according to Barthes, new forms of meaning spring from neutralisation when we avoid dichotomies. This essay aims at observing how Neutre works in the specific dichotomy masculine/feminine. In order to achieve this, we have chosen a corpus of articles published in three French newspapers (Le Figaro, Le Monde and Libération) during the year 2003. The corpus has subsequentely been analysed by means of the tools provided us by the so-called “French school” by authors such as Benveniste, Bally, Ducrot and Maingueneau. This has allowed us to observe the forms of persistence and neutralisation of the dichotomy according to our specific interest. As a result, this essay deals not only with the meaning of Neutre and the analysis of how it concretely applies to a corpus, but it also outlines a representation of contemporary femininity according to the French daily press.