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A Barthes Reader
A Barthes Reader gives one the image of Barthes as one of the great public teachers of our time, someone who thought out, argued for, and made available several steps in a penetrating reflection on language sign systems, texts- and what they have to tell us about the concept of being human. Susan Sontag's prefatory essay is one of her finest acts of criticism, informed by intellectual sympathy and a sure sense of the contours of the mind she is describing.
534 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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718 people want to read
About the author
Roland Barthes
406 books2,657 followersRoland Barthes of France applied semiology, the study of signs and symbols, to literary and social criticism.
Ideas of Roland Gérard Barthes, a theorist, philosopher, and linguist, explored a diverse range of fields. He influenced the development of schools of theory, including design, anthropology, and poststructuralism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_...
Ideas of Roland Gérard Barthes, a theorist, philosopher, and linguist, explored a diverse range of fields. He influenced the development of schools of theory, including design, anthropology, and poststructuralism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_...
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 30, 2007
One of the most joyful reading experiences is anything by Roland Barthes. He is sort of like a great tasty piece of fruit. You peel one layer of the fruit and you get a surprise of some sort. Susan Sontag put this reader together and it sort of a greatest hits package or a "welcome to Barthes" new reader set. If you are new to him, this is a great volume to be introduced to.
January 11, 2017
Roland Barthes was a man who lived and breathed semiotics. He applies Ferdinand de Saussure's theory of the sign to everything, and when I say everything, I mean everything. A short list of topics the collection of writings in the book touches on is art, literature, film, photography, architecture, writing, striptease, wrestling, tuberculosis, cooking, teaching, science, love, and, sex. Barthes wrote about every pit stop his mind came to, and no thought of his escaped the structuralist binary of the signifier and signified, except when he tried to slightly modify or critique it.
As a writer he is maddening. Essays tend to start off lucid and devolve into insufferable obscurity. He is either a beautiful writer who communicates a unique perspective through some of the most apt figurative language I have ever read (his essay about the Eiffel Tower and the excerpt from the Pleasure of the Text come to mind) or he gets lost in a web of fragmentation, allusions, jargon, and words that probably don't need capital letters (I skimmed through much here but the excerpt from A Lover's Discourse is the only one I could not force myself to finish). I don't know how much of this is to do with translation problems, but all of the hallmarks of bad postmodernist writing are here, so I think it is fair to hold Barthes in suspicion of obscurantism.
That said, there is plenty here I wish to revisit. The best sections to my mind were the excerpts from Mythologies ('The World of Wrestling' and 'Myth Today'), Image-Music-Text ('Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives', 'The Third Meaning', and 'Writers, Intellectuals, Teachers') and Writing Degree Zero. The excerpt from Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes gives some humorous insight into who he was a person (he hated women in slacks, apparently), but I think his project is best summed up in his inaugural lecture at the Collège de France, where he speaks with relative clarity about academic freedom, the power of language, and what semiotics means to him. The events of May 1968 in France were a sign that the old institutions had fallen and ushered in an era of "gentle apocalypse". Like Susan Sontag in her introductory essay, I think this is a pretty good way to describe the tone of Barthes, who seems to have found a great opportunity for playfulness in a somewhat nihilistic intellectual milieu and lived it to its fullest extent.
One notable omission is 'The Death of the Author' which is his most famous and (to my mind) best essay. Perhaps it is not here because it is so widely published elsewhere.
As a writer he is maddening. Essays tend to start off lucid and devolve into insufferable obscurity. He is either a beautiful writer who communicates a unique perspective through some of the most apt figurative language I have ever read (his essay about the Eiffel Tower and the excerpt from the Pleasure of the Text come to mind) or he gets lost in a web of fragmentation, allusions, jargon, and words that probably don't need capital letters (I skimmed through much here but the excerpt from A Lover's Discourse is the only one I could not force myself to finish). I don't know how much of this is to do with translation problems, but all of the hallmarks of bad postmodernist writing are here, so I think it is fair to hold Barthes in suspicion of obscurantism.
That said, there is plenty here I wish to revisit. The best sections to my mind were the excerpts from Mythologies ('The World of Wrestling' and 'Myth Today'), Image-Music-Text ('Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives', 'The Third Meaning', and 'Writers, Intellectuals, Teachers') and Writing Degree Zero. The excerpt from Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes gives some humorous insight into who he was a person (he hated women in slacks, apparently), but I think his project is best summed up in his inaugural lecture at the Collège de France, where he speaks with relative clarity about academic freedom, the power of language, and what semiotics means to him. The events of May 1968 in France were a sign that the old institutions had fallen and ushered in an era of "gentle apocalypse". Like Susan Sontag in her introductory essay, I think this is a pretty good way to describe the tone of Barthes, who seems to have found a great opportunity for playfulness in a somewhat nihilistic intellectual milieu and lived it to its fullest extent.
One notable omission is 'The Death of the Author' which is his most famous and (to my mind) best essay. Perhaps it is not here because it is so widely published elsewhere.
January 29, 2024
What else could I possibly hope to contribute that goes unexpressed in Sontag’s breathtaking introduction? It would be foolish and egotistical to presume I could supplement something so wonderfully heartfelt.
All I will say (for the sake of writing anything, anything at all) is that what follows is an absolutely electrifying collection of semiotical musings, digressions, and self-examinations - in a playful ‘style’ (apologies for the antiquated term mr Barthes) almost magically attuned to its subject matter and intentions (in a way reminiscent of Nietzsche).
All I will say (for the sake of writing anything, anything at all) is that what follows is an absolutely electrifying collection of semiotical musings, digressions, and self-examinations - in a playful ‘style’ (apologies for the antiquated term mr Barthes) almost magically attuned to its subject matter and intentions (in a way reminiscent of Nietzsche).
Want to read
November 18, 2010Putting this one away for now. I feel like there are wonderful things to unearth in Barthes' writings, but for some reason it is all leaving me cold at the moment. Perhaps I am just more in the mood for some heartfelt imaginative prose rather than elevated theory, but I am just not receptive to this at all, for whatever reason. Back onto the shelf until your proper time.
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Found this on the cheap at a used book stall at a mediocre market-gathering that was really just a foil for a Martin O'Malley ralley (wandered into it by mistake, make no assumptions that Maryland politics interest me in the slightest), and really enjoyed the first piece on Gide's Journals. Found Sontag's introduction unbearably boring, and didn't really care about the essay on the spectacle of wrestling. Got into the excerpts from "Writing Degree Zero" and started wondering just what the big deal was with this Barthes fellow, what with his gigantic post-WWII French intellectual reputation, who seems to take ages, and multiple clauses, to say pretty much nothing. I won't judge too quickly, though, and "The World as Object" has some interesting lines. I just have to keep reminding myself that certain certified academics need to be unnecessarily complex and opaque so that the tuition checks to the university will have time to clear before someone figures out they really don't have that much to add to the sum of things.
**************************************
Found this on the cheap at a used book stall at a mediocre market-gathering that was really just a foil for a Martin O'Malley ralley (wandered into it by mistake, make no assumptions that Maryland politics interest me in the slightest), and really enjoyed the first piece on Gide's Journals. Found Sontag's introduction unbearably boring, and didn't really care about the essay on the spectacle of wrestling. Got into the excerpts from "Writing Degree Zero" and started wondering just what the big deal was with this Barthes fellow, what with his gigantic post-WWII French intellectual reputation, who seems to take ages, and multiple clauses, to say pretty much nothing. I won't judge too quickly, though, and "The World as Object" has some interesting lines. I just have to keep reminding myself that certain certified academics need to be unnecessarily complex and opaque so that the tuition checks to the university will have time to clear before someone figures out they really don't have that much to add to the sum of things.
Read
October 30, 2007I picked up a copy at a bargain booksale, despite being so, so sick of Barthes. I noticed that this reader, edited by Sontag, contains five essays not included in the American edition of 'Critical Essays,' a circumstance that probably justifies--though just barely--the $1 I spent for it.
April 4, 2009
So many festive, resplendent and juicy relations to ideas, for you to dip your toes in and savor at will. Prepare yourself for the "ecstatic experience of understanding" and the occasional "moment of gentle apocalypse."
September 2, 2015
A collection of essays written by my favorite semiotician. Superb read. It opens up a new view-point.
August 10, 2019
“Writing, on the contrary, is always rooted in something beyond language, it develops like a seed, not like a line, it manifests an essence and holds the threat of a secret, it is anti-communication, it is intimidating.”
Read
October 2, 2020Not smart or patient enough to finish this right now.
January 1, 2024
MY YEAR
February 12, 2024
A writerly text.
March 13, 2011
This is a book that is worth reading for the introduction by Susan Sontag alone, but that would be a disservice to the excellent group of essays by Roland Barthes that she selected for inclusion in this reader. The opening essay, "On Gide and His Journal", won me over with its insights into one of my favorite authors. The remaining essays range from Tacitus to Racine to Garbo which should provide some idea of the breadth of Barthes' interest and intellect. There are also judicious selections from The Pleasure of the Text and A Lover's Discourse that will leave you wanting more. The penultimate selection is Barthes' "Inaugural Lecture" given at the establishment of the chair of Semiology at the College de France. In it Barthes describes his current age as one of "unlearning" and uses these words to describe this experience, which I believe apply to much of this book: "a little knowledge, a little wisdom, and as much flavor as possible."
June 16, 2009
An excellent collection of pieces by Barthes, including the key essays "Introduction to a Structural Analysis of Narrative" and "Writers, Intellectuals, Teachers". Barthes was always at his best in shorter pieces, and this collection contains lovely examples of his writing.
June 3, 2013
This compendium of the great Frenchman's writing goes over my head most of the time. When I can see what the man is saying, I find it highly intelligent and instructive. Subjects range from theatric, staged wrestling to mythology as a meta-language.
Currently reading
September 4, 2007A good collection of Barthes, and it includes one of my favorites, The Third Meaning.
Want to read
December 30, 2007Not for EVERYONE! lol..but as a Sign Language interpreting major.. right up my alley!! Thx
January 23, 2008
im not really
Currently reading
July 17, 2011I have just finished the bit about wrestling.
April 4, 2008
R.B. The way to learn it.
Read
April 18, 2009این اثر توسط مازیار اسلامی به پارسی برگردانده شده است
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews