Doxa: That Which Sticks onto the Retina

Roland Barthes's position regarding doxa is subtle yet full of personal and political tensions. He understands doxa as public opinion, as bourgeois ideology, which always threatens to invade and pervert his own thinking—to the point that his main concern, at times, seems to be his desire and need to escape doxa. Nevertheless, he is fully aware that, as a human being, there is no avoiding the doxic situation. Thus, Barthes's position regarding doxa is inherently paradoxical.

My aim in this short article is to provide a critical commentary on, and try to explicate, Barthes's use of doxa through a close reading of some passages from Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes (1975). In doing so, I also hope to make amends for my earlier, perhaps rather shallow and bleak, understanding of the role of doxa in Barthes's text.