Barthes

This comprehensive presentation of Roland

Barthes’s work tracks his intellectual evolution, with

particular emphasis on those areas where his

influence is felt most strongly today. Key stages in

Barthes’s intellectual itinerary are discussed in

seven core chapters: Mythologies; Semiology; New

criticism; Structuralism; Reader writer and text;

Pleasure, the body and the self; and Photography.

In each chapter concepts are contextualised so that

the reader may understand the issues debated

during the period under scrutiny, and the strength

and originality of Barthes’s contribution to those

debates surrounding cultural forms. The successive

shifts in Barthes’s thought are also carefully

explained and highlighted to avoid any confusion in

the readers mind between concepts or theories

developed at different stages. Another three

chapters (Barthes in perspective; Barthes’s legacy;

and Paradox: a way of thinking) offer an overview of

Barthes’s career and a general assessment of his

place in the intellectual landscape of the last fifty

years.

"Both academics and students, in addition to the wider

public ... will benefit greatly from this comprehensive

monograph. The book covers a wide spectrum of Barthes’

ideas on myth and mythology, literary form and ideology,

semiology, and other critical contributions. One important

characteristic of the book is its accessibility due to the clear

and rigorous style of Ribière in unfolding Barthes’ theories."

Dr Dalia Said Mostafa, The University of Manchester