Barthes, Roland

Roland Barthes

Roland Gérard Barthes
(1915-1980)

Roland Barthes was knocked down on the 25th February, 1980, by a laundry van while crossing a road in Paris. He died of his injuries a month later. It’s tempting to assume that he was talking too volubly to notice the danger he was in. Certainly Barthes was a great talker, as well as a wonderfully illuminating writer on almost every subject he touched: literary theory, linguistics, philosophy, and popular culture.

‘The Death of the Author’ is one of his most celebrated essays, appearing first in English translation in 1967, and subsequently (in the original French) in 1968.

Select Bibliography:

1. Writing Degree Zero. 1953. New York: Hill and Wang, 1968.


2. Mythologies. 1957. Rev. ed. 1970. Ed & Trans. Annette Lavers. 1972. A Paladin Book. Frogmore, St Albans: Granada Publishing Ltd., 1973.


3. Elements of Semiology. 1964. Trans. Annette Lavers & Colin Smith. Cape Editions. London: Jonathan Cape, 1967.


4. Critical Essays. 1964. Northwestern University Press, 1972.


5. The Fashion System. 1967. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.


6. S/Z: An Essay. 1970. New York: Hill and Wang, 1975.


7. Sade, Fourier, Loyola. 1971. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976.


8. New Critical Essays. 1972. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.


9. The Pleasure of the Text. 1973. New York: Hill and Wang, 1975.


10. Image—Music—Text: Selected Essays. Trans. Stephen Heath. Glasgow: Fontana/Collins, 1977.


11. Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes. 1977. Écrivains de toujours. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1980.


12. A Lover's Discourse: Fragments. 1977. Trans. Richard Howard. 1978. Hill and Wang. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.


13. The Eiffel Tower and other Mythologies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.


14. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. 1980. Trans. Richard Howard. 1981. Flamingo. London: Fontana Paperbacks, 1982.


15. A Barthes Reader. Ed. Susan Sontag. 1982. Fontana Pocket Readers. Oxford: Fontana/Collins, 1983.


16. Empire of Signs. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.


17. The Grain of the Voice: interviews 1962-1980. London: Jonathan Cape, 1985.


18. The Responsibility of Forms: Critical essays on music, art, and representation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985.


19. The Rustle of Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.


20. Criticism and Truth. London: The Athlone Press, 1987.


21. Michelet. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987.


22. Writer Sollers. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.


23. Incidents. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.


24. On Racine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.


25. The Semiotic Challenge. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.


26. The Neutral: Lecture Course at the Collège de France. 1977–1978. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.


27. Mourning Diary. New York: Hill and Wang, 2010.


28. The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Courses and Seminars at the Collège de France. 1978–1979 & 1979–1980. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.


29. How To Live Together: Notes for a Lecture Course and Seminar at the Collège de France. 1976–1977. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.

Biography & Secondary Literature:

Culler, Jonathan. Barthes. Fontana Modern Masters. Ed. Frank Kermode. London: Collins, 1983.

Homepages & Online Information:

Wikipedia entry

Roland Barthes: Le Plaisir du texte