Roland Gérard Barthes ( / b ɑːr t / ; French: [ʁɔlɑ̃ baʁt] ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French writer, thinker, and expert in signs and symbols. He studied and analyzed different types of signs, mostly from Western popular culture. His work covered many different areas, such as structuralism, anthropology, literary theory, and post-structuralism. His ideas helped shape the growth of several schools of thought.
Barthes is famous for his 1957 book of essays called Mythologies, which included observations about popular culture. He also wrote the 1967/1968 essay "The Death of the Author," which challenged old ways of looking at literature. During his career, he was mainly connected to the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Collège de France.
Biography
Roland Barthes was born on November 12, 1915, in the town of Cherbourg in Normandy, France. His father, Louis Barthes, was a naval officer who died in a battle during World War I in the North Sea before Barthes turned one year old. His mother, Henriette Barthes, and his aunt and grandmother raised him in the village of Urt and the city of Bayonne. In 1924, Barthes's family moved to Paris, though he always felt a strong connection to the places where he grew up.
Barthes was a talented student and studied at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) from 1935 to 1939, where he earned a degree in classical literature. During this time, he struggled with poor health, including tuberculosis, which required treatment in special hospitals. His health problems interrupted his studies and prevented him from taking important exams. They also exempted him from military service during World War II.
From 1939 to 1948, Barthes focused on earning a degree in grammar and philology, published his first writings, and participated in a medical study. He received a DES (a degree similar to a master's) from the University of Paris in 1941 for his work on Greek tragedy, supervised by Paul Mazon.
In 1948, Barthes returned to academic work, holding temporary positions at institutes in France, Romania, and Egypt. During this time, he wrote for the leftist newspaper Combat, which led to his first full book, Writing Degree Zero (1953).
In 1952, Barthes joined the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, where he studied lexicology and sociology. Over seven years, he wrote a series of essays for the magazine Les Lettres Nouvelles, analyzing myths in French popular culture. These essays were later collected in Mythologies (1957). In 1957, Barthes taught at Middlebury College in the United States and met Richard Howard, who later translated many of his works into English.
In the early 1960s, Barthes explored fields like semiology and structuralism, held teaching positions in France, and wrote books that challenged traditional views of literature. His ideas caused conflict with a professor named Raymond Picard, who criticized Barthes's work for being unclear and not respecting French literary traditions. Barthes responded in his 1966 book Criticism and Truth, arguing that older critics ignored important theories like Marxism.
By the late 1960s, Barthes was well-known for his work. He traveled to the United States and Japan, giving a lecture at Johns Hopkins University. In 1967, he wrote the influential essay "The Death of the Author," which examined the limits of structuralist thinking, a topic also explored by Jacques Derrida.
Barthes continued to write for the avant-garde magazine Tel Quel, which shared similar ideas. In 1970, he published S/Z, a detailed analysis of Balzac's Sarrasine, considered one of his most important works. Throughout the 1970s, he developed new ideas about literature and taught at the University of Geneva. He also became associated with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS).
In 1975, Barthes wrote an autobiography titled Roland Barthes. In 1977, he was appointed to the chair of Sémiologie Littéraire at the Collège de France. That same year, his mother, Henriette Barthes, died at age 85. They had lived together for 60 years, and her death deeply affected him. His final major work, Camera Lucida, partly reflects on his mother and includes photographs, though none of them are of Henriette.
Barthes had a small role in the 1979 French film The Brontë Sisters, playing the character William Makepeace Thackeray.
On February 25, 1980, Barthes was struck by a laundry van driver while walking home in Paris. He died one month later, on March 26, 1980, due to complications from his injuries.
Writings and ideas
Barthes's earliest ideas were influenced by a popular philosophy in France during the 1940s. This philosophy was called existentialism, and its main figure was Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre's book What Is Literature? (1947) expressed dissatisfaction with both traditional writing styles and more experimental, innovative styles. Sartre believed these styles made readers feel disconnected. Barthes responded by trying to find what makes writing unique and original. In Writing Degree Zero (1953), Barthes argued that language and style are shaped by shared rules. These rules mean that neither language nor style is purely creative. Instead, the unique and creative act is how a writer uses these rules, which Barthes called "writing." However, once a writer's style becomes known to others, it can become a rule itself. This means creativity requires constant change and adaptation.
In Michelet, a critical analysis of the French historian Jules Michelet, Barthes expanded his ideas. He argued that Michelet's views about history and society were flawed. Barthes said readers should not try to learn from Michelet's claims but instead study how and why his thinking was wrong. This helps understand the time period in which Michelet lived. Barthes also believed that experimental writing should keep a distance between itself and its audience. By showing artificiality instead of claiming to express deep truths, avant-garde writers help audiences remain objective. In this way, Barthes believed art should question the world rather than try to explain it, as Michelet had done.
Barthes's monthly writings, collected in Mythologies (1957), often examined everyday cultural items to show how middle-class values are promoted through them. For example, Barthes discussed how wine is described in French society as a healthy and strong habit. This description hides the reality that wine can be harmful. Barthes used semiotics, the study of signs, to analyze these ideas. He developed a theory of signs to explain how myths are created. He said myths have two levels: the first is the literal meaning of something, and the second is the meaning given by society. For example, a dark, full bottle of wine is a sign for an alcoholic drink. However, the middle class sees it as a symbol of health and relaxation. Barthes believed these myths are "second-order signs" or "connotations." The reasons for creating these myths include selling products or keeping the current social order. These ideas connected Barthes to Marxist theories. He used the term "myth" to show how objects in post-war French culture are linked to shared values through stories.
Mythologies is a key work made up of essays originally published in magazines. In it, Barthes argues that cultural signs are not neutral but are tied to ideas that support dominant social values. He used ideas from Marxist thought, such as ideology, authenticity, and the idea that people treat goods as if they have special value. Barthes analyzed everyday items like the Citroën car, professional wrestling, magazine covers, and children's toys. For example, he saw the Citroën as a modern cathedral, showing how people treat consumer goods as sacred. He also interpreted a magazine cover with a Black soldier saluting the French flag as a quiet support for colonial ideas. Through these examples, Barthes showed how common cultural items help spread dominant ideas in society.
In The Fashion System, Barthes explained how signs can be translated into words. He said that in fashion, words can carry middle-class ideals. For example, if a fashion article says a "blouse" is perfect for a certain outfit, people accept this as true, even though other items like a "skirt" or "vest" could work just as well. Later, Barthes noticed that his work in Mythologies was being used by others in middle-class culture. People began asking him to comment on cultural topics, showing they wanted to control how readers understood these topics. This made Barthes question whether revealing hidden meanings in culture was useful. It led him to focus more on finding personal meaning in art.
As Barthes's work with structuralism grew, he studied how language shapes writing, which he felt old criticism ignored. His essay "Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative" examined how the structure of a sentence relates to the structure of a larger story. He divided his work into three levels: "functions," "actions," and "narrative." "Functions" are basic parts of a work, like a single word that describes a character. That character is an "action," and together, these make up a "narrative." Barthes used these ideas to evaluate how key words, like "dark" or "mysterious," help create characters. By breaking down works into these parts, Barthes judged how realistic characters are and how accurately a story reflects reality. His structuralist ideas were another way to expose how middle-class culture spreads misleading ideas.
While Barthes found structuralism helpful, he did not believe it could become a strict science. In the late 1960s, new movements in literary criticism challenged structuralism. Post-structuralism and deconstruction, led by Jacques Derrida, questioned structuralist ideas. Derrida pointed out that structuralism relied on a "transcendental signifier," a symbol that represents universal meaning. Without such a symbol, a system that only looks at a work itself could not be useful. Since no symbol has universal meaning, the whole idea of structuralism as a way to evaluate writing or anything else is flawed. These ideas made Barthes think about the limits of his work.
Influence
Roland Barthes's ideas helped shape the growth of theoretical schools such as structuralism, semiotics, and post-structuralism. His influence is most visible in these areas, but it also appears in many other fields that deal with how information is shown or communicated, such as computers, photography, music, and literature. One result of Barthes's wide range of interests is that there is no group of thinkers who follow his style closely. Because his work constantly changed and challenged ideas about stability and consistency, there is no single set of ideas from his theory that others can use as a model. Therefore, there is no "Barthesism."
Key terms
Barthes uses the terms "readerly" and "writerly" to describe different kinds of literature and to explore how readers engage with texts. These terms are most clearly explained in the book S/Z, and the essay "From Work to Text" from Image—Music—Text (1977) offers a similar explanation of how readers interact with texts in active or passive ways, or in modern or postmodern styles.
A "readerly text" does not require the reader to create or produce their own meaning. Instead, the reader can passively find pre-made meanings in the text. Barthes explains that these texts follow rules that avoid contradictions and do not challenge common beliefs or cultural norms, called "Doxa." These texts make up the majority of literature, including "replete literature," which acts like a storage place where meanings are kept safe and organized.
A "writerly text" aims to change how readers engage with literature. It encourages readers to become active participants who create meaning rather than simply receiving it. Barthes argues that texts should not be accepted as they are, but instead should be questioned and reinterpreted. Unlike "readerly texts," which are seen as finished products, "writerly texts" are shaped by the reader’s interaction with the text. Reading, for Barthes, becomes a form of work rather than a passive act.
Barthes also uses the terms "author" and "scriptor" to describe different ideas about who creates texts. The traditional idea of an "author" is someone who writes alone, using their imagination to create a unique work. However, Barthes believes this idea is outdated because modern thinking, including ideas from Surrealism, shows that all writing is influenced by previous texts, norms, and traditions. Instead of an "author," Barthes introduces the idea of a "scriptor," who combines existing texts in new ways. The "scriptor" has no personal history separate from the text they create, and the focus shifts from the writer’s life to the text itself. Barthes argues that removing the idea of an "author" allows readers to interpret texts in many different ways. He states, "the death of the author is the birth of the reader."
Criticism
In 1964, Barthes wrote an essay titled "The Last Happy Writer" ("Le dernier des écrivains heureux" in Essais critiques), a title that references Voltaire. In the essay, Barthes discussed the challenges faced by modern thinkers after encountering the idea of relativism in thinking and philosophy, and he dismissed earlier philosophers who avoided this issue. Daniel Gordon, the translator and editor of Candide (The Bedford Series in History and Culture), strongly disagreed with Barthes's description of Voltaire, stating that "never has one brilliant writer so thoroughly misunderstood another."
Simon Leys, a sinologist, wrote a review of Barthes's diary about a trip to China during the Cultural Revolution. Leys criticized Barthes for appearing uninterested in the hardships of the Chinese people and noted that Barthes "has managed—surprisingly—to give a new sense of dignity to the long-standing practice, long unfairly criticized, of speaking at great length without saying anything."
In popular culture
Barthes's book A Lover's Discourse: Fragments inspired the name of a music group called The Lover Speaks, which was active in the 1980s.
In Jeffrey Eugenides's novel The Marriage Plot, the character Madeleine Hanna reads parts of Barthes's A Lover's Discourse: Fragments to explore the complex aspects of love she experiences in the story.
In the 2014 film Birdman, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, a journalist reads a quote from Barthes's Mythologies to the main character, Riggan Thompson. The quote says, "The cultural work that was once done by gods and epic stories is now done by laundry-detergent commercials and comic-strip characters."
In the 1996 film The Truth About Cats & Dogs, directed by Michael Lehmann, a character named Brian reads a part of Barthes's Camera Lucida over the phone to someone he believes is a beautiful woman, but the person is actually her friend, who is more intellectual and less physically attractive.
In the film Elegy, which is based on Philip Roth's novel The Dying Animal, the character Consuela, played by Penélope Cruz, is first shown carrying a copy of Barthes's book The Pleasure of the Text while on a university campus.
Laurent Binet's novel The 7th Function of Language is based on the idea that Barthes was not accidentally hit by a van driver but was instead murdered as part of a secret plan to obtain a document called the "Seventh Function of Language."