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Roland Barthes (1915-1980), a French critic and intellectual, was a seminal figure in late twentieth-century literary criticism. Barthes's primary theory is that language is not simply words, but a series of indicators of a given society's assumptions. He derived his critical method from structuralism, which studies the rules behind language, and semiotics, which analyzes culture through signs and holds that meaning results from social conventions. Barthes believed that such techniques permit the reader to participate in the work of art under study, rather than merely react to it. Barthes's first books, Writing Degree Zero (1953), and Mythologies (1957), introduced his ideas to a European audience. During the 1960s his work began to appear in the United States in translation and became a strong influence on a generation of American literary critics and theorists. Other important works by Barthes are Elements of Semiology (1968), Critical Essays (1972), The Pleasure of the Text (1973), and The Empire of Signs (1982). The Barthes Reader (1983), edited by Susan Sontag, contains a wide selection of the critic's work in English translation. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Mythologies… (more)
Mythologies 4,096 copies, 30 reviews
A Lover's Discourse: Fragments 1,922 copies, 13 reviews
The Pleasure of the Text 1,251 copies, 14 reviews
S/Z: An Essay 1,175 copies, 6 reviews
Image, Music, Text 1,056 copies, 8 reviews
Empire of Signs 695 copies, 6 reviews
Writing Degree Zero 681 copies, 5 reviews
Elements of Semiology 476 copies, 3 reviews
Roland Barthes 441 copies, 5 reviews
A Barthes Reader 401 copies, 1 review
The mourning diary 280 copies, 5 reviews
Sade, Fourier, Loyola 264 copies, 2 reviews
The Fashion System 223 copies, 2 reviews
Criticism And Truth 175 copies, 2 reviews
Critical Essays 175 copies, 2 reviews
The Semiotic Challenge 172 copies, 1 review
Incidents 120 copies
Michelet (Author) 117 copies, 1 review
Sur Racine 108 copies, 1 review
The Language of Fashion 95 copies, 1 review
Leçon 89 copies, 1 review
L'Analyse structurale du récit 76 copies, 2 reviews
What Is Sport? 42 copies, 1 review
The Death of the Author 31 copies, 1 review
Writer Sollers 25 copies
Het werkelijkheidseffect 10 copies, 2 reviews
Arcimboldo 8 copies, 1 review
Erté 6 copies
Barthes 5 copies
Barcelona 5 copies
Lo verosimil 2 copies
¿Por donde empezar? 2 copies, 1 review
Chronik 2 copies
Exegesis Y Hermeneutica 2 copies, 1 review
Michelet 1 copy
Mytologies 1 copy
O Texto, A Leitura 1 copy, 1 review
*ANY 1 copy
The Art of the Personal Essay (Contributor) 1,308 copies, 8 reviews
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (Contributor, some editions) 882 copies, 7 reviews
Satanism and Witchcraft: The Classic Study of Medieval Superstition (Foreword, some editions) 481 copies, 5 reviews
Critical Theory Since Plato (Contributor, some editions) 386 copies, 1 review
Criticism: Major Statements (Contributor) 209 copies
The Penguin Book of International Gay Writing (Contributor) 175 copies, 3 reviews
Tricks (Foreword, some editions) 123 copies
Jean Renoir (Contributor) 88 copies
Romans et contes (Preface, some editions) 47 copies, 1 review

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