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2.4.11

el estudiante, la investigación y el deseo (Barthes)

On the threshold of his work, the student experiences a series of divisions.

As young subject he belongs to an economic class defines by its unproductiveness: he is neither an owner nor a producer; he is outside of exchange, and even, one might say, outside exploitation: socially, he is excluded from any nomination.

As an intellectual subject, he is brought into the hierarchy of tasks, he is supposed to participate in a speculative luxury he nonetheless cannot enjoy, for he has not yet mastered it, i.e., the availability of communication.

As a researching subject, he is dedicated to the separation of discourses: on one side the discourse of scientificity (discourse of the Law), and on the other, the discourse of desire, or writing.

The task (of research) must be perceived in desire. If this perception does not occur, the work is morose, functional, alienated, impelled solely by the necessity of passing an examination, of obtaining a diploma, of insuring a career promotion.

For desire to be insinuated into my work, that work must be demanded of me not by a collectivity seeking to guarantee my labor and to gain a return on the loans it grants me, but by a living collection of readers expressing the desire of the Other (and not the control of the Law).

Roland Barthes, "Research: The Young" en The Rustle of Language.