構成要素を探り構造をとらえることで、その現象を理解しようとする構造主義は、1960年代にフランスで生まれ、歴史や精神分析学のほか、文学や文化研究を根本から変えた思想のひとつです。本書ではフランス構造主義の草分け的存在であるロラン・バルト（1915-80年）の著作に、その思想を探ります。正統な構造主義者と見なされるのを嫌ったバルトの独特の世界観にひたることができる一冊です。(cf. Continental Philosophy, #043; Poststructuralism, #073)
  

• 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.