I've sent an interesting proposal for a paper to a conference in April of 2007, on Leslie Feist and Roland Barthes. It's a very difficult text (Barthes), and it's funny that I'm becoming a Barthesian scholar, of sorts. Anyway, I'm sure the paper could be interesting, discussing Feist's change of style from punk (with the band Placebo - the less popular one) to a softer style. This change was apparently due to a vocal injury (yes, injury rears its ugly head again - if you don't know what I mean, take a look at my MA thesis on Bowie and body modification, or read a chapter in my upcoming dissertation). So, that's out and hopefully I'll be speaking at that conference.
It's funny but I do think that Barthes is an interesting scholar. I didn't really get S/Z the first time I read through it, but after spending time with it in my final dissertation chapter, I think he really paints a vivid picture of what is happening at every little moment in reading a text. The Pleasure of the Text is also a difficult read, with lots of big words, but I think there are interesting points in there for figuring out how we derive pleasure from certain texts. Um, or whatever.
(the photo of Feist above is from her appearance in New York in the summer of 2006, that originally appeared on the allthingsfeist.com website)
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