張愛玲與羅蘭‧ 巴特（Roland Barthes）在創作、喜好與對母親的情 感具有高度巧合，時賢不乏對兩人的比較論述。但如果要說明張愛玲 閱讀照片時的「美感與神祕感」（李歐梵語）等美學與哲學意涵，惟有再 對《對照記》與巴特的《明室》二書深入分析，方能釐清張愛玲閱讀照片 時的感覺結構生成；尤其當《明室》提供了對相片具現象學式與邏輯式 的閱讀方法。
如果巴特《羅蘭‧ 巴特論羅蘭‧ 巴特》（Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes）以圖像和照片詮釋自我生命，《對照記》則可視為「張愛玲論張 愛玲」的一種欲望與行動。本文首先分析張愛玲在「自己看自己」的活 動中，對於其多重陌生、艷異的「神情」和「擺姿勢」的各種解讀；其次 則以「知面」與「刺點」討論張愛玲「看」背後的知識系統如何支撐她所注 意的，關於衣服的細節。最後則回到張愛玲創作的美學風格，嘗試提 出她「超人／凡人」、「瞬間／永恆」的對照美學，此種美學可連結張愛 玲觀看照片所產生的死亡與永恆的時間感，亦是羅蘭‧ 巴特觀看照片 時，格外注重之處。

This essay attempts to involve Eileen Chang and Roland Barthes in an encounter through the phenomenology of image in their looking at old photos. Leo Lee claims the “Eileen Chang creates a sense of mystery in a fabulous aesthetic context” in Looking at the Old Photos; however, the sense of Eileen Chang’s look is not a complete mystery. In my opinion, Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida provides a phenomenological approach for understanding the sense of mystery in Looking at the Old Photos.
My comparison of these two books focuses on three main points. First, in the photographic gaze of Eileen Chang looking at herself, in Roland Barthes’ words, the unfamiliarity makes her have a multiple understanding of her countenance and gesture. Secondly, Camera Lucida develops the twin concepts of studium and punctum to explain the attraction of photos. These concepts apply as well to Eileen Chang’s habit of looking by which she always notices the details of clothing at first glance. Finally, just as Camera Lucida is a eulogy to Barthes’s late mother, Looking at the Old Photos can be taken as a eulogy Eileen Chang’ late mother and family members, as well. Roland Barthes and Eileen Chang both hold that the essence of a certain what has been can be revived by looking at photos.