Roland Barthes

Born	November 12, 1915(1915-11-12) Cherbourg, France
Died	March 26, 1980(1980-03-26) (aged 64) Paris, France

Roland Gérard Barthes (1915 – 1980) was a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, anthropology and post-structuralism.

Life and work

Roland Barthes was born in Cherbough, Manche. His father died in a naval battle in Barthes' infancy, forcing his mother to move to Bayonne. Barthes spent his early childhood there, until they moved to Paris in 1924 where he attended the Lycée Montagne, followed by studies at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand from 1930-34. Life became difficult for them when Barthes mother had an illegitimate child, for their grandparents refused to give her financial aid, and so she took work as a bookbinder. Barthes was able to continue his studies at the Sorbonne, in classical letters, grammar and philology (receiving a degrees in 1939 and 1943 respectively), and Greek tragedy.

Barthes' doctoral studies were hampered by ill health. He suffered from tuberculosis, spending time in sanatoriums in the years 1934-5 and 1942-46, during the occupation. He continued to read and write, established a theatrical group, and in spite of his condition, managed to teach at lycées in Biarritz (1939), Bayonne (1939-40), Paris (1942-46), at the French Institute, Bucharest, Romania (1948-49), University of Alexandria, Egypt (1949-50), and Direction Générale des Affaires Culturelles (1950-52). His teaching career expanded: research positions with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (1952-59), a directorship of studies at the École Practique des Hautes Étude (1960-76), a teacher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (1967-68), and a chair of literary semiology at Collège de France (1976 to 1980) [1].

Literature

Books by Barthes

• Mythologies, Paris: Seuil, 1957.
  • Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1972 (in English).
  • Mythologies: The Complete Edition, in a New Translation, trans. Richard Howard and Annette Lavers, New York: Hill and Wang; Tra edition, 2012 (in English) review.
  • Mythen des Alltags. Vollständige Ausgabetrans, trans. Horst Brühmann, Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2010 (in German).
• Sur Racine, Paris: Seuil, 1963.
• S/Z, Paris: Seuil, 1970.
  • S/Z, trans. Richard Miller, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974 (in English).
• Sade/ Fourier/ Loyola, Paris: Seuil, 1971.
• Le Plaisir du texte, Paris: Seuil, 1973.
• Essais Critiques, Paris: Seuil, 1973.
• Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes [Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes], 1975/1977
• Image-Music-Text, essays, New York: Hill and Wang, 1977
• Fragments d’un discours amoureux, Paris: Seuil, 1977
  • A Lover's Discourse: Fragments, trans. Richard Howard, New York: Hill and Wang, 1978.
• Sollers, écrivain, Paris: Seuil, 1979 (in English).
• Nouveaux essais critiques, Paris: Seuil, 1980.
• Essais critiques IV: Le Bruissement de la langue, Paris: Seuil, 1980.
• La chambre claire : note sur la photographie [Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography], 1980-
• Essais critiques, Paris: Seuil, 1981.
• Le Grain de la voix: Entretiens 1962-80, Paris: Seuil, 1981.
• L'obvie et l'obtus: essais critiques III, Paris: Seuil, 1982.
  • The Responsabily of Form. Critical essays on Music, Art and representation, trans. Richard Howard, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., 1985 (in English).
  • Lo obvio y lo obtuso: imágenes, gestos, voces, Barcelona: Ediciones Paidos Iberica, S.A., 1986 (in Spanish).
• Incidents, University of California Press, 1992 (in English).
• Œuvres complètes [Complete works], Editions du Seuil: Paris, 1993

Book chapters and Articles by Barthes

• "Le message photographique", Communications, vol. 1, no.1, 1961:127-138.
  • "The Photographic Message", trans. Stephen Heath, chap. in Image-Music-Text, essays, New York: Hill and Wang, 1977 (Reprint in: A Barthes Reader, ed. Susan Sontag, New York: Hill and Wang, 1982: 194-210).
• "Rhétorique de l'image", Communications, vol. 4, no. 4, 1964:40-51.
  • "Rhetoric of the Image", in Alan Trachtenberg (ed.), Classic Essays on Photography, New Haven: Leete's Island Books, 1980: 269-285.

Books, articles, papers on Barthes

• Louis-Jean Calvet, Roland Barthes, un regard politique sur le signe, Paris: Payot, 1973.
• Colloque de Cérisy, Prétexte: Roland Barthes, Paris: Union générale d'éditions, 1978.
• Susan Sontag, "Remembering Barthes", in Under the Sign of Saturn, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980.
• George R. Wasserman, Roland Barthes, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.
• Annette Lavers, Roland Barthes: Structuralism and After, London: Methuen & Co., 1982.
• Susan Sontag, "Writing Itself: On Roland Barthes", introduction to Roland Barthes, A Barthes Reader, ed. Susan Sontag, New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.
• Jonathan Culler, Barthes (American Title: Roland Barthes). London: Fontana Modern Masters; New York: Oxford University Press, 1983 (Revised and expanded edition, Roland Barthes: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, Oxford, 2001).
• Alec McHoul and David Wills, "The Late(r) Barthes", Boundary 2 (Fall 85/Winter 86): 261-78.
• Réda Bensmaïa, The Barthes Effect: The Essay as Reflective Text, trans. Pat Fedkiew, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.
• Louis-Jean Calvet, Roland Barthes 1915-1980, Paris: Flammarion, 1990.
  • Loius-Jean Calvet, Roland Barthes: A Biography", trans. Sarah Wykes, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994 (in English).
• Jean-Michel Rabaté (ed.), Writing the Image After Roland Barthes, University on Pensylvania Press, 1997.
• Allen Graham, Roland Barthes, London: Routledge, 2003.
• Jean-Claude Milner, El paso filosófico de Roland Barthes, Buenos Aires: Amorrortu, 2004.
• Eric Marty, Roland Barthes, le métier d'écrire, Paris: Seuil, 2006
• Adam Lowenstein, "The Surrealism of the Photographic Image: Bazin, Barthes, and the Digital Sweet Hereafter", Cinema Journal, 46, Number 3, Spring 2007, pp. 54-82 [2]
• More.

External Links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes