Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
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 ...
,
essayist
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
,
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
, and
semiotician
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves Sign (semiotics), signs, where a sign is defined as anything that commun ...
. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of
sign system
A sign system is a key concept in semiotics and is used to refer to any system of signs and relations between signs. The term ''language'' is frequently used as a synonym for a sign-system. However, the term ''sign-system'' is considered preferab ...
s, mainly derived from Western popular culture. His ideas explored a diverse range of fields and influenced the development of many schools of theory, including
structuralism
In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
,
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
,
literary theory
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, mo ...
, and
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critique ...
.
Barthes is perhaps best known for his 1957 essay collection ''
Mythologies
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
'', which contained reflections on popular culture, and 1967 essay "
The Death of the Author
"The Death of the Author" ( French: ''La mort de l'auteur'') is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of relying on the inten ...
," which critiqued traditional approaches in
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
. During his academic career he was primarily associated with the
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
(EHESS) and the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...
.
Biography
Early life
Roland Barthes was born on 12 November 1915 in the town of
Cherbourg
Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...
in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
. His father, naval officer Louis Barthes, was killed in a battle during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
before Barthes's first birthday. His mother, Henriette Barthes, and his aunt and grandmother raised him in the village of
Bayonne
Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...
. In 1924, Barthes' family moved to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, though his attachment to his provincial roots would remain strong throughout his life.
Student years
Barthes showed great promise as a student and spent the period from 1935 to 1939 at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
, where he earned a ''
licence
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
'' in classical literature. He was plagued by ill health throughout this period, suffering from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, which often had to be treated in the isolation of
sanatoria
A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...
. His repeated physical breakdowns disrupted his academic career, affecting his studies and his ability to take qualifying examinations. They also exempted him from
military service
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).
Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require a ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
His life from 1939 to 1948 was largely spent obtaining a ''licence'' in
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
and
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
, publishing his first papers, taking part in a medical study, and continuing to struggle with his health. He received a ''diplôme d'études supérieures'' (roughly equivalent to an MA by thesis) from the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
in 1941 for his work in
Greek tragedy
Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy.
Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...
.
Early academic career
In 1948, he returned to purely academic work, gaining numerous short-term positions at institutes in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
, and
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. During this time, he contributed to the leftist Parisian paper ''Combat'', out of which grew his first full-length work, '' Writing Degree Zero'' (1953).
In 1952, Barthes settled at the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science
Basic research, also called pure research o ...
, where he studied
lexicology
Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that analyzes the lexicon of a specific language. A word is the smallest meaningful unit of a language that can stand on its own, and is made up of small components called morphemes and even smaller element ...
and
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
. During his seven-year period there, he began to write a popular series of bi-monthly essays for the magazine ''Les Lettres Nouvelles'', in which he dismantled myths of
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
(gathered in the ''
Mythologies
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
'' collection that was published in 1957). Consisting of fifty-four short essays, mostly written between 1954 and 1956, ''Mythologies'' were acute reflections of French popular culture ranging from an analysis on soap detergents to a dissection of popular wrestling. Knowing little English, Barthes taught at
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...
in 1957 and befriended the future English translator of much of his work,
Richard Howard
Richard Joseph Howard (October 13, 1929 – March 31, 2022; adopted as Richard Joseph Orwitz) was an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a graduate of Columbia University, w ...
, that summer in New York City.Richard Howard. "Remembering Roland Barthes," ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'' (20 November 1982): "Mutual friends brought us together in 1957. He came to my door in the summer of that year, disconcerted by his classes at Middlebury (teaching students unaccustomed to a visitor with no English to speak of) and bearing, by way of introduction, a fresh-printed copy of ''Mythologies''. (''Michelet'' and ''Writing Degree Zero'' had already been published in France, but he was not yet known in America—not even in most French departments. Middlebury was enterprising.)" Reprinted in ''Signs in Culture: Roland Barthes Today'', edited by Steven Ungar and Betty R. McGraw, University of Iowa Press, 1989, p. 32 ().
Rise to prominence
Barthes spent the early 1960s exploring the fields of
semiology
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...
and
structuralism
In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
, chairing various faculty positions around France, and continuing to produce more full-length studies. Many of his works challenged traditional academic views of
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
and of renowned figures of literature. His unorthodox thinking led to a conflict with a well-known Sorbonne professor of literature,
Raymond Picard
Raymond Picard (6 August 1917 – 5 September 1975) was a French author, prominent Sorbonne professor and Jean Racine scholar.
Work
Picard is noted for his scathing tract "Nouvelle critique ou nouvelle imposture?" (" New Criticism or New Fraud?") ...
, who attacked the French
New Criticism
New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as ...
(a label that he inaccurately applied to Barthes) for its obscurity and lack of respect towards France's literary roots. Barthes's rebuttal in ''Criticism and Truth'' (1966) accused the old,
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
criticism of a lack of concern with the finer points of language and of selective ignorance towards challenging theories, such as
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
.
By the late 1960s, Barthes had established a reputation for himself. He traveled to the US and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, delivering a presentation at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
. During this time, he wrote his best-known work, the 1967 essay "
The Death of the Author
"The Death of the Author" ( French: ''La mort de l'auteur'') is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of relying on the inten ...
," which, in light of the growing influence of
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
's
deconstruction
The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...
, would prove to be a transitional piece in its investigation of the logical ends of structuralist thought.
Mature critical work
Barthes continued to contribute with
Philippe Sollers
Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyaux; 28 November 1936) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the ''avant garde'' literary journal ''Tel Quel'' (along with writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), which was published by Le Se ...
to the
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
literary magazine ''
Tel Quel
''Tel Quel'' (translated into English as, variously: "as is," "as such," or "unchanged") was a French avant-garde literary magazine published between 1960 and 1982.
History and profile
''Tel Quel'' was founded in 1960 in Paris by Philippe Soll ...
'', which was developing similar kinds of theoretical inquiry to that pursued in Barthes's writings. In 1970, Barthes produced what many consider to be his most prodigious work, the dense, critical reading of Balzac's ''
Sarrasine
''Sarrasine'' is a novella written by Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1830, and is part of his '' Comédie Humaine''.
Introduction
Balzac, who began writing in 1819 while living alone in the rue Lesdiguières, undertook the composition ...
'' entitled '' S/Z''. Throughout the 1970s, Barthes continued to develop his literary criticism; he developed new ideals of
textuality
In literary theory, textuality comprises all of the attributes that distinguish the communicative content under analysis as an object of study. It is associated with structuralism and post-structuralism.
Explanation
Textuality is not just abou ...
and novelistic neutrality. In 1971, he served as visiting professor at the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...
. In those same years he became primarily associated with the
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
(EHESS).
In 1975 he wrote an autobiography titled ''Roland Barthes'' and in 1977 he was elected to the chair of Sémiologie Littéraire at the
Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...
. In the same year, his mother, Henriette Barthes, to whom he had been devoted, died, aged 85. They had lived together for 60 years. The loss of the woman who had raised and cared for him was a serious blow to Barthes. His last major work, ''
Camera Lucida
A ''camera lucida'' is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists and microscopists.
The ''camera lucida'' performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist se ...
'', is partly an essay about the nature of
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
and partly a meditation on photographs of his mother. The book contains many reproductions of photographs, though none of them are of Henriette.
Death
On 25 February 1980, Roland Barthes was knocked down by a laundry van while walking home through the streets of Paris. One month later, on 26 March, he died from the chest injuries he had sustained in the accident.
Writings and ideas
Early thought
Barthes's earliest ideas reacted to the trend of
existentialist
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...
philosophy that was prominent in France during the 1940s, specifically to the figurehead of existentialism,
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
. Sartre's ''
What Is Literature?
''What Is Literature?'' (french: Qu'est-ce que la littérature?), also published as ''Literature and Existentialism'',) is an essay by French philosopher and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre, published by Gallimard in 1948. Initially published in frees ...
'' (1947) expresses a disenchantment both with established forms of writing and more experimental,
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
forms, which he feels alienate readers. Barthes's response was to try to discover that which may be considered unique and original in writing. In ''Writing Degree Zero'' (1953), Barthes argues that conventions inform both language and style, rendering neither purely creative. Instead, form, or what Barthes calls "writing" (the specific way an individual chooses to manipulate conventions of style for a desired effect), is the unique and creative act. However, a writer's form is vulnerable to becoming a convention once it has been made available to the public. This means that creativity is an ongoing process of continual change and reaction.
In ''Michelet'', a critical analysis of the French historian
Jules Michelet
Jules Michelet (; 21 August 1798 – 9 February 1874) was a French historian and an author on other topics whose major work was a history of France and its culture. His aphoristic style emphasized his anti-clerical republicanism.
In Michelet's ...
, Barthes developed these notions, applying them to a broader range of fields. He argued that Michelet's views of history and society are obviously flawed. In studying his writings, he continued, one should not seek to learn from Michelet's claims; rather, one should maintain a critical distance and learn from his errors, since understanding how and why his thinking is flawed will show more about his period of history than his own observations. Similarly, Barthes felt that
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
writing should be praised for its maintenance of just such a distance between its audience and itself. In presenting an obvious artificiality rather than making claims to great subjective truths, Barthes argued, avant-garde writers ensure that their audiences maintain an objective perspective. In this sense, Barthes believed that art should be critical and should interrogate the world, rather than seek to explain it, as Michelet had done.
Semiotics and myth
Barthes's many monthly contributions, collected in his ''
Mythologies
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
'' (1957), frequently interrogated specific cultural materials in order to expose how
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
society asserted its values through them. For example, Barthes cited the portrayal of wine in French society. Its description as a robust and healthy habit is a bourgeois ideal that is contradicted by certain realities (i.e., that wine can be unhealthy and inebriating). He found
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
, the study of signs, useful in these interrogations. He developed a theory of signs to demonstrate this perceived deception. He suggested that the construction of myths results in two levels of signification: the "language-object", a first order linguistic system; and the "metalanguage", the second-order system transmitting the myth. The former pertains to the literal or explicit meaning of things while the latter is composed of the language used to speak about the first order. Barthes explained that these bourgeois cultural myths were "second-order signs," or "
connotation
A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation.
A connotation is frequently described as either positive o ...
s." A picture of a full, dark bottle is a
signifier
In semiotics, signified and signifier ( French: ''signifié'' and ''signifiant'') stand for the two main components of a sign, where ''signified'' pertains to the "plane of content", while ''signifier'' is the "plane of expression". The idea was ...
that relates to a specific signified: a fermented, alcoholic beverage. However, the bourgeoisie relate it to a new signified: the idea of healthy, robust, relaxing experience. Motivations for such manipulations vary, from a desire to sell products to a simple desire to maintain the
status quo
is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...
. These insights brought Barthes in line with similar Marxist theory. Barthes used the term "myth" while analyzing the popular, consumer culture of post-war France in order to reveal that "objects were organized into meaningful relationships via narratives that expressed collective cultural values."
In ''The Fashion System'' Barthes showed how this adulteration of signs could easily be translated into words. In this work he explained how in the fashion world any word could be loaded with idealistic bourgeois emphasis. Thus, if popular fashion says that a 'blouse' is ideal for a certain situation or ensemble, this idea is immediately naturalized and accepted as truth, even though the actual sign could just as easily be interchangeable with 'skirt', 'vest' or any number of combinations. In the end Barthes's ''Mythologies'' became absorbed into bourgeois culture, as he found many third parties asking him to comment on a certain cultural phenomenon, being interested in his control over his readership. This turn of events caused him to question the overall utility of demystifying culture for the masses, thinking it might be a fruitless attempt, and drove him deeper in his search for individualistic meaning in art.
Structuralism and its limits
As Barthes's work with
structuralism
In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
began to flourish around the time of his debates with Picard, his investigation of structure focused on revealing the importance of language in writing, which he felt was overlooked by old criticism. Barthes's "Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative" is concerned with examining the correspondence between the structure of a sentence and that of a larger narrative, thus allowing narrative to be viewed along
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
lines. Barthes split this work into three hierarchical levels: 'functions', 'actions' and 'narrative'. 'Functions' are the elementary pieces of a work, such as a single descriptive word that can be used to identify a character. That character would be an 'action', and consequently one of the elements that make up the narrative. Barthes was able to use these distinctions to evaluate how certain key 'functions' work in forming characters. For example, key words like 'dark', 'mysterious' and 'odd', when integrated together, formulate a specific kind of character or 'action'. By breaking down the work into such fundamental distinctions Barthes was able to judge the degree of realism given functions have in forming their actions and consequently with what authenticity a narrative can be said to reflect on reality. Thus, his structuralist theorizing became another exercise in his ongoing attempts to dissect and expose the misleading mechanisms of
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
culture.
While Barthes found structuralism to be a useful tool and believed that discourse of literature could be formalized, he did not believe it could become a strict scientific endeavour. In the late 1960s, radical movements were taking place in literary criticism. The
post-structuralist
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
movement and the
deconstruction
The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essences w ...
ism of
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
were testing the bounds of the structuralist theory that Barthes's work exemplified.
Derrida
Derrida is a surname shared by notable people listed below.
* Bernard Derrida (born 1952), French theoretical physicist
* Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), French philosopher
** ''Derrida'' (film), a 2002 American documentary film
* Marguerite De ...
identified the flaw of structuralism as its reliance on a transcendental signifier; a symbol of constant, universal meaning would be essential as an orienting point in such a closed off system. This is to say that without some regular standard of measurement, a system of criticism that references nothing outside of the actual work itself could never prove useful. But since there are no symbols of constant and universal significance, the entire premise of structuralism as a means of evaluating writing (or anything) is hollow.
Transition
Such thought led Barthes to consider the limitations not just of signs and symbols, but also of Western culture's dependency on beliefs of constancy and ultimate standards. He travelled to
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
in 1966 where he wrote ''Empire of Signs'' (published in 1970), a meditation on Japanese culture's contentment in the absence of a search for a transcendental signifier. He notes that in Japan there is no emphasis on a great focus point by which to judge all other standards, describing the centre of
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, the Emperor's Palace, as not a great overbearing entity, but a silent and nondescript presence, avoided and unconsidered. As such, Barthes reflects on the ability of signs in Japan to exist for their own merit, retaining only the significance naturally imbued by their signifiers. Such a society contrasts greatly to the one he dissected in ''
Mythologies
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
'', which was revealed to be always asserting a greater, more complex significance on top of the natural one.
In the wake of this trip Barthes wrote what is largely considered to be his best-known work, the essay "
The Death of the Author
"The Death of the Author" ( French: ''La mort de l'auteur'') is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of relying on the inten ...
" (1968). Barthes saw the notion of the author, or authorial authority, in the criticism of literary text as the forced projection of an ultimate meaning of the text. By imagining an ultimate intended meaning of a piece of literature one could infer an ultimate explanation for it. But Barthes points out that the great proliferation of meaning in language and the unknowable state of the author's mind makes any such ultimate realization impossible. As such, the whole notion of the 'knowable text' acts as little more than another delusion of Western
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
culture. Indeed, the idea of giving a book or poem an ultimate end coincides with the notion of making it consumable, something that can be used up and replaced in a capitalist market. "The Death of the Author" is considered to be a
post-structuralist
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
work, since it moves past the conventions of trying to quantify literature, but others see it as more of a transitional phase for Barthes in his continuing effort to find significance in culture outside of the
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
norms . Indeed, the notion of the author being irrelevant was already a factor of structuralist thinking.
Textuality and ''S/Z''
Since Barthes contends that there can be no originating anchor of meaning in the possible intentions of the author, he considers what other sources of meaning or significance can be found in literature. He concludes that since meaning can't come from the author, it must be actively created by the reader through a process of textual analysis. In his '' S/Z'' (1970), Barthes applies this notion in an analysis of ''
Sarrasine
''Sarrasine'' is a novella written by Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1830, and is part of his '' Comédie Humaine''.
Introduction
Balzac, who began writing in 1819 while living alone in the rue Lesdiguières, undertook the composition ...
'', a Balzac novella. The result was a reading that established
five major codes
''S/Z'', published in 1970, is Roland Barthes' structural analysis of "Sarrasine", the short story by Honoré de Balzac. Barthes methodically moves through the text of the story, denoting where and how different codes of meaning function. Barthe ...
for determining various kinds of significance, with numerous lexias throughout the text – a "lexia" here being defined as a unit of the text chosen arbitrarily (to remain methodologically unbiased as possible) for further analysis. The codes led him to define the story as having a capacity for plurality of meaning, limited by its dependence upon strictly sequential elements (such as a definite timeline that has to be followed by the reader and thus restricts their freedom of analysis). From this project Barthes concludes that an ideal text is one that is reversible, or open to the greatest variety of independent interpretations and not restrictive in meaning. A text can be reversible by avoiding the restrictive devices that ''Sarrasine'' suffered from such as strict timelines and exact definitions of events. He describes this as the difference between the writerly text, in which the reader is active in a creative process, and a readerly text in which they are restricted to just reading. The project helped Barthes identify what it was he sought in literature: an openness for interpretation.
Neutral and novelistic writing
In the late 1970s, Barthes was increasingly concerned with the conflict of two types of language: that of popular culture, which he saw as limiting and pigeonholing in its titles and descriptions, and neutral, which he saw as open and noncommittal. He called these two conflicting modes the
Doxa
Doxa (; from verb )Henry Liddell, Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott (philologist), Robert Scott. 1940.δοκέω" In ''A Greek–English Lexicon, A Greek-English Lexicon'', edited by Henry Stuart Jones, H. S. Jones and R. McKenzie. Oxford. ...
(the official and unacknowledged systems of meaning by which we know culture) and the Para-doxa. While Barthes had sympathized with Marxist thought in the past (or at least parallel criticisms), he felt that, despite its anti-ideological stance, Marxist theory was just as guilty of using violent language with assertive meanings, as was
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
literature. In this way they were both Doxa and both culturally assimilating. As a reaction to this, he wrote ''
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'' ("pleasure ...
'' (1975), a study that focused on a subject matter he felt was equally outside the realm of both conservative society and militant leftist thinking:
hedonism
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...
. By writing about a subject that was rejected by both social extremes of thought, Barthes felt he could avoid the dangers of the limiting language of the Doxa. The theory he developed out of this focus claimed that, while reading for pleasure is a kind of social act, through which the reader exposes him/herself to the ideas of the writer, the final
cathartic
In medicine, a cathartic is a substance that ''accelerates'' defecation. This is similar to a laxative, which is a substance that ''eases'' defecation, usually by softening feces. It is possible for a substance to be both a laxative and a cathart ...
climax of this pleasurable reading, which he termed the bliss in reading or
jouissance
''Jouissance'' is a French term meaning "enjoyment", which in Lacanianism is taken in terms both of rights and property, and of sexual orgasm. The latter has a meaning partially lacking in the English word "enjoyment". The term denotes a transgre ...
, is a point in which one becomes lost within the text. This loss of self within the text or immersion in the text, signifies a final impact of reading that is experienced outside the social realm and free from the influence of culturally associative language and is thus neutral with regard to social progress.
Despite this newest theory of reading, Barthes remained concerned with the difficulty of achieving truly neutral writing, which required an avoidance of any labels that might carry an implied meaning or identity towards a given object. Even carefully crafted neutral writing could be taken in an assertive context through the incidental use of a word with a loaded social context. Barthes felt his past works, like ''
Mythologies
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
'', had suffered from this. He became interested in finding the best method for creating neutral writing, and he decided to try to create a novelistic form of rhetoric that would not seek to impose its meaning on the reader. One product of this endeavor was '' A Lover's Discourse: Fragments'' in 1977, in which he presents the fictionalized reflections of a lover seeking to identify and be identified by an anonymous amorous other. The unrequited lover's search for signs by which to show and receive love makes evident illusory myths involved in such a pursuit. The lover's attempts to assert himself into a false, ideal reality is involved in a delusion that exposes the contradictory logic inherent in such a search. Yet at the same time the novelistic character is a sympathetic one, and is thus open not just to criticism but also understanding from the reader. The result is one that challenges the reader's views of social constructs of love, without trying to assert any definitive theory of meaning.
Mind and body
Barthes also attempted to reinterpret the mind-body dualism theory. Like
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
and
Emmanuel Levinas
Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics to me ...
, he also drew from Eastern philosophical traditions in his critique of European culture as "infected" by Western metaphysics. His body theory emphasized the formation of the self through bodily cultivation. The theory, which is also described as ethico-political entity, considers the idea of the body as one that functions as a "fashion word" that provides the illusion of a grounded discourse. This theory has influenced the work of other thinkers such as Jerome Bel.
Photography and Henriette Barthes
Throughout his career, Barthes had an interest in photography and its potential to communicate actual events. Many of his monthly myth articles in the 50s had attempted to show how a photographic image could represent implied meanings and thus be used by bourgeois culture to infer 'naturalistic truths'. But he still considered the photograph to have a unique potential for presenting a completely real representation of the world. When his mother, Henriette Barthes, died in 1977 he began writing ''
Camera Lucida
A ''camera lucida'' is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists and microscopists.
The ''camera lucida'' performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist se ...
'' as an attempt to explain the unique significance a picture of her as a child carried for him. Reflecting on the relationship between the obvious symbolic meaning of a photograph (which he called the studium) and that which is purely personal and dependent on the individual, that which 'pierces the viewer' (which he called the punctum), Barthes was troubled by the fact that such distinctions collapse when personal significance is communicated to others and can have its symbolic logic rationalized. Barthes found the solution to this fine line of personal meaning in the form of his mother's picture. Barthes explained that a picture creates a falseness in the illusion of 'what is', where 'what was' would be a more accurate description. As had been made physical through Henriette Barthes's death, her childhood photograph is evidence of 'what has ceased to be'. Instead of making reality solid, it reminds us of the world's ever changing nature. Because of this there is something uniquely personal contained in the photograph of Barthes's mother that cannot be removed from his subjective state: the recurrent feeling of loss experienced whenever he looks at it. As one of his final works before his death, ''Camera Lucida'' was both an ongoing reflection on the complicated relations between subjectivity, meaning and cultural society as well as a touching dedication to his mother and description of the depth of his grief.
Posthumous publications
A posthumous collection of essays was published in 1987 by
François Wahl François Wahl (13 May 1925 - 15 September 2014) was a French editor and structuralist.
Biography
François Wahl was editor at the Éditions du Seuil, a publishing company in Paris.Bill Marshall, ''France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and ...
, ''Incidents''. It contains fragments from his journals: his ''Soirées de Paris'' (a 1979 extract from his erotic diary of life in Paris); an earlier diary he kept which explicitly detailed his paying for sex with men and boys in Morocco; and ''Light of the Sud Ouest'' (his childhood memories of rural French life). In November 2007,
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
published a new translation into English (by Richard Howard) of Barthes's little known work ''What is Sport''. This work bears a considerable resemblance to ''
Mythologies
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
'' and was originally commissioned by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
as the text for a documentary film directed by
Hubert Aquin
Hubert Aquin (24 October 1929 – 15 March 1977) was a Quebec novelist, political activist, essayist, filmmaker and editor.
Aquin was born in Montreal and graduated from the Université de Montréal in 1951. From 1951 to 1954, he studied at th ...
.
In February 2009,
Éditions du Seuil
Éditions du Seuil (), also known as ''Le Seuil'', is a French publishing house established in 1935 by Catholic intellectual Jean Plaquevent (1901–1965), and currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The ''seuil'' ...
published ''Journal de deuil'' (Journal of Mourning), based on Barthes's files written from 26 November 1977 (the day following his mother's death) up to 15 September 1979, intimate notes on his terrible loss:
He grieved his mother's death for the rest of his life: "Do not say mourning. It's too psychoanalytic. I'm not in mourning. I'm suffering." and "In the corner of my room where she had been bedridden, where she had died and where I now sleep, in the wall where her headboard had stood against I hung an icon—not out of faith. And I always put some flowers on a table. I do not wish to travel anymore so that I may stay here and prevent the flowers from withering away."
In 2012 the book ''Travels in China'' was published. It consists of his notes from a three-week trip to China he undertook with a group from the literary journal
Tel Quel
''Tel Quel'' (translated into English as, variously: "as is," "as such," or "unchanged") was a French avant-garde literary magazine published between 1960 and 1982.
History and profile
''Tel Quel'' was founded in 1960 in Paris by Philippe Soll ...
in 1974. The experience left him somewhat disappointed, as he found China "not at all exotic, not at all disorienting".
Influence
Roland Barthes's criticism contributed to the development of theoretical schools such as
structuralism
In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
,
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
, and
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critique ...
. While his influence is mainly found in these theoretical fields with which his work brought him into contact, it is also felt in every field concerned with the representation of information and models of communication, including computers, photography, music, and literature. One consequence of Barthes's breadth of focus is that his legacy includes no following of thinkers dedicated to modeling themselves after him. The fact that Barthes's work was ever adapting and refuting notions of stability and constancy means there is no canon of thought within his theory to model one's thoughts upon, and thus no "Barthesism".
Key terms
''Readerly'' and ''writerly'' are terms Barthes employs both to delineate one type of literature from another and to implicitly interrogate ways of reading, like positive or negative habits the modern reader brings into one's experience with the text itself. These terms are most explicitly fleshed out in '' S/Z'', while the essay "From Work to Text", from ''Image—Music—Text'' (1977), provides an analogous parallel look at the active–passive and postmodern–modern ways of interacting with a text.
Readerly text
A text that makes no requirement of the reader to "write" or "produce" their own meanings. The reader may passively locate "ready-made" meaning. Barthes writes that these sorts of texts are "controlled by the principle of non-contradiction" (156), that is, they do not disturb the "common sense," or "Doxa," of the surrounding culture. The "readerly texts," moreover, "are products
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
make up the enormous mass of our literature" (5). Within this category, there is a spectrum of "replete literature," which comprises "any classic (readerly) texts" that work "like a cupboard where meanings are shelved, stacked, ndsafeguarded" (200).Barthes, Roland. S/Z: An Essay. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang, 1974.
Writerly text
A text that aspires to the proper goal of literature and criticism: "... to make the reader no longer a consumer but a producer of the text" (4). Writerly texts and ways of reading constitute, in short, an active rather than passive way of interacting with a culture and its texts. A culture and its texts, Barthes writes, should never be accepted in their given forms and traditions. As opposed to the "readerly texts" as "product," the "writerly text is ourselves writing, before the infinite play of the world is traversed, intersected, stopped, plasticized by some singular system (Ideology, Genus, Criticism) which reduces the plurality of entrances, the opening of networks, the infinity of languages" (5). Thus reading becomes for Barthes "not a parasitical act, the reactive complement of a writing", but rather a "form of work" (10).
The ''Author'' and the ''scriptor''
''Author'' and ''scriptor'' are terms Barthes uses to describe different ways of thinking about the creators of texts. "The author" is our traditional concept of the lone genius creating a work of literature or other piece of writing by the powers of his/her original imagination. For Barthes, such a figure is no longer viable. The insights offered by an array of modern thought, including the insights of
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
, have rendered the term obsolete. In place of the author, the modern world presents us with a figure Barthes calls the "scriptor," whose only power is to combine pre-existing texts in new ways. Barthes believes that all writing draws on previous texts, norms, and conventions, and that these are the things to which we must turn to understand a text. As a way of asserting the relative unimportance of the writer's biography compared to these textual and generic conventions, Barthes says that the scriptor has no past, but is born with the text. He also argues that, in the absence of the idea of an "author-God" to control the meaning of a work, interpretive horizons are opened up considerably for the active reader. As Barthes puts it, "the death of the author is the birth of the reader."
Criticism
In 1964, Barthes wrote "The Last Happy Writer" ("''Le dernier des écrivains heureux''" in ''Essais critiques''), the title of which refers to
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
. In the essay he commented on the problems of the modern thinker after discovering the relativism in thought and philosophy, discrediting previous philosophers who avoided this difficulty. Disagreeing roundly with Barthes's description of Voltaire, Daniel Gordon, the translator and editor of ''
Candide
( , ) is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, The ...
'' (The Bedford Series in History and Culture), wrote that "never has one brilliant writer so thoroughly misunderstood another."
The sinologist
Simon Leys
Pierre Ryckmans (28 September 1935 – 11 August 2014), better known by his pen name Simon Leys, was a Belgian-Australian writer, essayist and literary critic, translator, art historian, sinologist, and university professor, who lived in Austral ...
, in a review of Barthes's diary of a trip to China during the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
, disparages Barthes for his seeming indifference to the situation of the Chinese people, and says that Barthes "has contrived—amazingly—to bestow an entirely new dignity upon the age-old activity, so long unjustly disparaged, of saying nothing at great length."
The Lover Speaks
The Lover Speaks were an English new wave duo consisting of David Freeman (vocals) and Joseph Hughes (arranger, composer). They wrote and sang the original version of the song "No More "I Love You's"", covered by Annie Lennox in 1995 on her ...
.
Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American novelist and short story writer. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: ''The Virgin Suicides'' (1993), ''Middlesex'' (2002), and'' The Marriage Plot'' ...
' ''
The Marriage Plot
''The Marriage Plot'' is a 2011 novel by the American writer, Jeffrey Eugenides. The novel grew out of a manuscript that Eugenides began after the publication of his sophomore Pulitizer Prize-winning novel, ''Middlesex.'' Eugenides has stated tha ...
'' draws out excerpts from Barthes's ''A Lover's Discourse: Fragments'' as a way to depict the unique intricacies of love that one of the main characters, Madeleine Hanna, experiences throughout the novel.
In the film '' Birdman'' (2014) by
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu (; American Spanish: ; credited since 2016 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the hum ...
, a journalist quotes to the protagonist Riggan Thompson an extract from ''Mythologies'': "The cultural work done in the past by gods and epic sagas is now done by laundry-detergent commercials and comic-strip characters".
In the film ''
The Truth About Cats & Dogs
''The Truth About Cats & Dogs'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann and written by Audrey Wells. It stars Janeane Garofalo, Uma Thurman, Ben Chaplin and Jamie Foxx. The story is a modern reinterpretation of the 1897 ...
'' (1996) by
Michael Lehmann
Michael Stephen Lehmann (born March 30, 1957) is an American film and television director known for directing the dark comedy ''Heathers''.
Early life and education
In 1978, Lehmann graduated from Columbia University.
, Brian is reading an extract from ''
Camera Lucida
A ''camera lucida'' is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists and microscopists.
The ''camera lucida'' performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist se ...
'' over the phone to a woman whom he thinks to be beautiful but who is her more intellectual and less physically desirable friend.
In the film ''
Elegy
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...
'', based on
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...
's novel ''
The Dying Animal
''The Dying Animal'' (2001) is a short novel by the US writer Philip Roth. It tells the story of senior literature professor David Kepesh, renowned for his literature-themed radio show. Kepesh is finally destroyed by his inability to comprehend emo ...
'', the character of Consuela (played by
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez (; ; born 28 April 1974) is a Spanish actress. Known for her roles in films of several genres, particularly those in the Spanish language, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British A ...
) is first depicted in the film carrying a copy of Barthes's ''
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'' ("pleasure ...
'' on the campus of the university where she is a student.
Laurent Binet
Laurent Binet (born 19 July 1972) is a French writer and university lecturer. His work focuses on the modern political scene in France.
Biography
The son of a historian,Valérie Trierweiler, October 18, 2010"Laurent Binet, retour sur un succès" ...
's novel ''The 7th Function of Language'' is based on the premise that Barthes was not merely accidentally hit by a van but that he was instead murdered, as part of a conspiracy to acquire a document known as the "Seventh Function of Language".
Mythologies
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
'', Seuil: Paris.
* (1963) ''Sur Racine'', Editions du Seuil: Paris
* (1964) ''Éléments de sémiologie'', Communications 4, Seuil: Paris.
* (1970) ''L'Empire des signes'', Skira: Geneve.
* (1970) '' S/Z'', Seuil: Paris.
* (1971) ''Sade, Fourier, Loyola'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (1972) ''Le Degré zéro de l'écriture suivi de Nouveaux essais critiques'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (1973) ''Le plaisir du texte'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (1975) ''Roland Barthes'', Éditions du Seuil: Paris
* (1977) ''Poétique du récit'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (1977) '' Fragments d’un discours amoureux,'' Paris
* (1978) ''Préface'', La Parole Intermédiaire, F. Flahault, Seuil: Paris
* (1980) ''Recherche de Proust'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (1980) ''La chambre claire: note sur la photographie''.
aris Aris or ARIS may refer to:
People
* Aris (surname)
Given name
* Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer
* Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player
* Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano
* Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter
* Aris Howard, Former President of the Jama ...
Cahiers du cinéma: Gallimard: Le Seuil, 1980.
* (1981) ''Essais critiques'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (1982) ''Littérature et réalité'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (1988) ''Michelet'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (1993) ''Œuvres complètes'', Editions du Seuil: Paris.
* (2009) ''Carnets du voyage en Chine,'' Christian Bourgeois: Paris.
* (2009) ''Journal de deuil,'' Editions du Seuil/IMEC: Paris.
Translations to English
* ''The Fashion System'' (1967), University of California Press: Berkeley.
* '' Writing Degree Zero'' (1968), Hill and Wang: New York.
* ''
Elements of Semiology
''Elements of Semiology'' (french: Éléments de sémiologie) is a compendium-like text by French semiotician Roland Barthes, originally published under the title of "Éléments de Sémiologie" in the French review ''Communications'' (No. 4, 1964 ...
'' (1968), Hill and Wang: New York.
* ''
Mythologies
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
'' (1972), Hill and Wang: New York.
* ''
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'' ("pleasure ...
'' (1975), Hill and Wang: New York.
* '' S/Z: An Essay'' (1975), Hill and Wang: New York.
* ''Sade, Fourier, Loyola'' (1976), Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York.
* ''Image—Music—Text'' (1977), Hill and Wang: New York.
* ''Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes'' (1977) (In this so-called autobiography, Barthes interrogates himself as a text.)
* ''
The Eiffel Tower and other Mythologies
''The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies'' is a collection of essays by the French literary theorist Roland Barthes. It is a companion volume to his earlier book, ''Mythologies'', and follows the same format of a series of short essays which expl ...
'' (1979), University of California Press: Berkeley.
* '' Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography'' (1981), Hill and Wang: New York.
* ''Critical Essays'' (1972), Northwestern University Press
* ''A Barthes Reader'' (1982), Hill and Wang: New York.
* ''Empire of Signs'' (1983), Hill and Wang: New York.
* ''The Grain of the Voice: Interviews 1962–1980'' (1985), Jonathan Cape: London.
* ''The Responsibility of Forms: Critical Essays on Music, Art, and Representation'' (1985), Basil Blackwell: Oxford.
* ''The Rustle of Language'' (1986), B. Blackwell: Oxford.
* ''
Criticism and Truth
''Criticism and Truth'' (french: Critique et vérité) is a 1966 work by Roland Barthes, first translated into English in 1987.
The book is a response to Raymond Picard's criticism of Barthes' earlier 1963 work, ''Sur Racine
Jean-Baptiste ...
Writer Sollers
''Writer Sollers'' (French: ''Sollers écrivain'') is a short book published in 1979 by the French literary critic Roland Barthes. In his discussion of the controversial French writer Philippe Sollers
Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyau ...
'' (1987), University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis.
* ''Roland Barthes'' (1988), Macmillan Pr.: London.
* '' A Lover's Discourse: Fragments'' (1990), Penguin Books: London.
* ''New Critical Essays'' (1990), University of California Press: Berkeley.
* ''
Incidents
''Incidents'' is a 1987 collection of four essays by Roland Barthes. It was published posthumously by François Wahl, Barthes' literary executor.
Summary
In the first essay, ''La Lumiere du Sud-Ouest'', first published in ''L'Humanité'' in 1977 ...
'' (1992), University of California Press: Berkeley.
* ''On Racine'' (1992), University of California Press: Berkeley
* ''The Semiotic Challenge'' (1994), University of California Press: Berkeley.
* ''The Neutral: Lecture Course at the Collège de France (1977–1978)'' (2005), Columbia University Press: New York.
* ''The Language of Fashion'' (2006), Power Publications: Sydney.
* ''What Is Sport?'' (2007), Yale University Press: London and New Haven.
* ''Mourning Diary'' (2010), Hill and Wang: New York. ''Mourning Diary'' ed.
Nathalie Léger
Nathalie Léger (born 20 September 1960 in Paris, France) is a writer and the executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives.
Career
Nathalie Léger was curator of several exhibitions, notably ''Le Jeu et la Raison'', ...
, trans.
Richard Howard
Richard Joseph Howard (October 13, 1929 – March 31, 2022; adopted as Richard Joseph Orwitz) was an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a graduate of Columbia University, w ...
(Hill and Wang, 2010).
* ''The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Courses and Seminars at the Collège de France (1978–1979 and 1979–1980)'' (2011), Columbia University Press: New York.
* ''How to Live Together: Notes for a Lecture Course and Seminar at the Collège de France (1976–1977)'' (2013), Columbia University Press: New York.
Reviews
* Smith, Stan (1983), review of ''Double Exposure: Barthes on Photography'', in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), ''
Cencrastus
''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...
'' No. 11, New Year 1983, pp. 47 - 48,
Sources
Citations
Sources
*
* .
*
Further reading
*Réda Bensmaïa, ''The Barthes Effect: The Essay as Reflective Text'', trans. Pat Fedkiew, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.
* Luca Cian, "A comparative analysis of print advertising applying the two main plastic semiotics schools: Barthes' and Greimas'", ''Semiotica'' 190: 57–79, 2012.
* Paul de Man, "Roland Barthes and the Limits of Structuralism", in ''Romanticism and Contemporary Criticism'', ed. E.S. Burt, Kevin Newmark, and Andrzej Warminski, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
*
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
, "The Deaths of Roland Barthes," in ''Psyche: Inventions of the Other, Vol. 1'', ed. Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth G. Rottenberg, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007.
*
D.A. Miller
D. A. Miller (born 1948) is an American literary critic and film scholar. He is John F. Hotchkis Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate School in the Department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.
Education and teaching ...
, ''Bringing Out Roland Barthes'', Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. (A highly personal collection of fragments, aimed at both mourning Barthes and illuminating his work in terms of a "gay writing position.")
*
Marie Gil Marie Gil is a French writer and Professor of French Literature in Paris.
She studied at HEC Paris, Ecole Normale Supérieure and Paris-Sorbonne University, was a Fellow of the Fondation Thiers and taught French Literature at Paris-Sorbonne Unive ...
, ''Roland Barthes: Au lieu de la vie'', Paris: Flammarion, 2012. (The first major academic biography
62 p.
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
*Michael Moriarty, ''Roland Barthes'', Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. (Explains various works of Roland Barthes)
*
Jean-Michel Rabate
Jean-Michel is a French masculine given name. It may refer to :
* Jean-Michel Arnold, General Secretary of the Cinémathèque Française
* Jean-Michel Atlan (1913–1960), French artist
* Jean-Michel Aulas (born 1949), French businessman
* Jean-Mic ...
, ed., ''Writing the Image After Roland Barthes'', Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
*
Jean-Louis de Rambures
Jean-Louis Vicomte de Bretizel Rambures (; 19 May 1930 – 20 May 2006) was a French journalist, author, translator of literature, literary critic, and cultural attaché. He introduced contemporary German literature to a broader French audience by ...
, Interview with Roland Barthes in: ''Comment travaillent les écrivains'', Paris: Flammarion, 1978
* Mireille Ribiere, ''Roland Barthes'', Ulverston: Humanities E-Books, 2008.
*
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...
, "Remembering Barthes", in ''Under the Sign of Saturn'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980.
*Susan Sontag, "Writing Itself: On Roland Barthes", introduction to Roland Barthes, ''A Barthes Reader'', ed. Susan Sontag, New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.
*Steven Ungar. Roland Barthes: Professor of Desire '. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
*George R. Wasserman. ''Roland Barthes''. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.
"Comment vivre ensemble" ("How to live together"), Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977 and "Le Neutre" ("The Neutral"), Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978.
The first half of the book, from Marxists.com
Cabinet Magazine
''Cabinet Magazine'' is a quarterly, Brooklyn, New York-based, non-profit art and culture magazine established in 2000. ''Cabinet Magazine'' also operates an event and exhibition space in Brooklyn. In 2022, ''Cabinet'' transitioned its magazine t ...