Atopy (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''ατοπία'', ''atopía'';

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

has often been called "átopos") is a concept describing the

ineffability Ineffability is the quality of something that surpasses the capacity of language to express it, often being in the form of a taboo or incomprehensible term. This property is commonly associated with philosophy, aspects of existence, and similar ...

of things or emotions that are seldom experienced, that are outstanding and that are original in the strict sense. It is a certain quality (of experience) that can be observed within oneself or within others, differing from the

ideal Ideal may refer to: Philosophy * Ideal (ethics), values that one actively pursues as goals * Platonic ideal, a philosophical idea of trueness of form, associated with Plato Mathematics * Ideal (ring theory), special subsets of a ring considere ...

quality that is conceptualized, not experienced.

History

Roland Barthes

French

literary theorist Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mora ...

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...

discussed and reevaluated the concept of ''atopy'' multiple times in his work. In '' A Lover's Discourse: Fragments'', Barthes defined it as "unclassifiable, of a ceaselessly unforeseen originality", referring to the circumstance, an ''atopia'', in which atopy is intercommunicated in interest and love. Previously, in ''

The Pleasure of the Text ''The Pleasure of the Text'' (french: Le Plaisir du Texte) is a 1973 book by the literary theorist Roland Barthes. Summary Barthes sets out some of his ideas about literary theory. He divides the effects of texts into two: ''plaisir'' ("pleasur ...

'', he regarded pleasure itself as atopic, saying that "the pleasure of the text is scandalous: not because it is immoral but because it is ''atopic''."

In popular culture

Icelandic singer

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

credited Barthes' interpretation of atopy as a main inspiration for the lyrics of her 2022 song " Atopos".

References

{{reflist Philosophical anthropology Concepts in the philosophy of mind