• Widely recognized as the best short book on Barthes' work and influence
• Barthes is the most 'reader-friendly' of the great French theorists of the twentieth century, and thus among the most popular.
• Jonathan Culler is highly respected and widely published in his field, and also regarded as one of the clearest writers on literary theory

 
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.