Barthes's bunraku: An intermedial approach to alterity

“Lesson in Writing”, published in issue 34 of Tel Quel in 1968, is the first version of the three central fragments on bunraku in Empire of Signs, namely “The Three Writings”, “Animate/Inanimate” and “Inside/Outside”. These fragments are central, because they elucidate aspects of Roland Barthes’ understanding of Japan, writing, reading and theatre, and because of their location in the book: at its centre (they are framed by 12 fragments before them and 11 after).
Bunraku (an ancient form of Japanese puppet theatre) provides Barthes with an opportunity to address the shortfalls of the Western theatrical tradition, especially its reliance on the closed stage of the théâtre à l’italienne. It is not the first time he expresses himself on the matter — see for example an early Roland Barthes extolling the virtues of the open stage of Jean Vilar in “« Le prince de Hombourg » au TNP” (1953)⁠ — but as far as bunraku is concerned, something more is at play. The bunraku fragments marry image, music and text, not only in the description of the performance, but also in the theoretical framework which underpins Barthes’ interpretation of it.
I would like to show that a certain musical element is at the crux of Barthes’ understanding of bunraku, and that a profitable parallel can be drawn between Barthes’ works on music and bunraku. From there, I will call upon Emmanuel Levinas’ work on sound to establish the bunraku performance as a Levinassian liturgy, i.e. ethics itself. This will provide an opportunity to interpret Roland Barthes as a reader of the bunraku performance, thus performing what he himself called for on several occasions: a shift of focus away from the author and towards the reader.