Talking about the Weather. Roland Barthes on Climate, Everydayness, the Feeling of Being, and Poetics

Abstract

The paper reads Rolands Barthes’ considerations on weather and climate in his last lecture cycle La Préparation du Roman by contextualizing its brief remarks with his previous discussions on this topic. Barthes develops a phenomenological concept of climate, showing how experiences of place across the seasons shape certain habits. These manifest in expectations, perceptions, daily routines, and language. However, his particular interest is devoted to the question of how an existential experience of weather in its contingency can be regained. Furthermore, he investigates how poetry tries to capture the uniqueness and singularity of respective weather appearances against the patterns and narratives of the climate sedimented in the language system.