"Roland Barthes and the Time of Writing" was for Professor Pierre St.-Amand's class (now of Brown University). It is a short and well-written paper that examines the question of Barthes's criticism in relation to what Barthes really wants to be: a Proustian novelist. I analyze the preface to his critical essays and talk a bit about about Blanchot.

I wish I could say that I write better now. Sure, I would change a few sentences here and there, but I always had teh prose. I'd say the basic idea of this paper was valid but a little thin. That I can look at anything from this period of my life without shame is quite amazing. At some point I'll try to read the professor's marginal comments, written in a small cramped hand.

This was a good class, given in French (which limited my participation) just on Barthes. I turned the paper in on Dec. 7, 1983, so that would have been the fall quarter of 83, at the beginning of my third year.