Barthes

Roland Barthes: A Very Short Introduction elucidates the varied theoretical contributions of Roland Barthes, whose lifelong fascination was with the way people make their world intelligible. It describes the many projects, which Barthes explored and which helped to change the way we think about a range of cultural phenomena — from literature, fashion, wrestling, and advertising to notions of the self, of history, and of nature. To some, he is the structuralist who outlined a ‘science of literature’, and the most prominent promoter of semiology; to others he stands not for science but pleasure, espousing a theory of literature which gives the reader a creative role.