This acclaimed short study, originally published in 1983, and now thoroughly updated, elucidates the varied theoretical contributions of Roland Barthes (1915-80), the `incomparable enlivener of the literary mind` whose lifelong fascination was with the way people make their world intelligible. He has a multi-faceted claim to fame: 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. This book 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.

Table of Contents:
Preface
1: Man of parts
2: Literary Historian
3: Mythologist
4: Critic
5: Polemicist
6: Semiologist
7: Structuralist
8: Hedonist
9: Writer
10: Man of Letters
11: Barthes after Barthes
Bibliography

Author Information:
Jonathan Culler, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University