Barthe- An Introduction

Explanation by Payal Mudliar

1. SHRI BALAJI INFOTECH Roland Gérard Barthes YouTube Channel English Literature By Payal Mudliar

2. Roland Gérard Barthes 2

3. This is a slide title Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician . Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of many schools of theory, including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design theory, anthropology and post-structuralism. 3

4. This is a slide title He was born in November 12, 1915, at Cherbourg, France and died in March 25, 1980, at Paris He was particularly known for developing and extending the field of semiotics Barthes showed great promise as a student and spent the period from 1935 to 1939 at the Sorbonne , where he earned a licence in classical literature. 4

5. This is a slide title While Barthes found structuralism to be a useful tool and believed that discourse of literature could be formalized, he did not believe it could become a strict scientific endeavour . In the late 1960s, radical movements were taking place in literary criticism 5

6. This is a slide title The core idea that Barthe is trying to deliver is that children do not choose what they want to become but instead, it is pre chosen for them by their parents according to the norms of the society Barthes spent the early 1960s exploring the fields of semiology and structuralism , Barthes's Marxism . 6

7. This is a slide title The Mare buttal in Criticism and Truth “(1966) describe a set of ideas and beliefs that are dominant in society and are used to justify the power and privilege of the ruling class. By the late 1960s, Barthes had established a reputation for himself He traveled to the US and Japan , delivering a presentation at Johns Hopkins University . 7

8. This is a slide title Famous maxim“I encounter millions of bodies in my life; of these millions, I may desire some hundreds; but of these hundreds, I love only one.” He wrote his best-known work, 1967 essay " The Death of the Author ," which, would prove to be a transitional piece in its investigation of the logical ends of structuralist thought. 8

9. This is a slide title As we earlier said, by the late 1960s, Barthes had established a reputation for himself Barthes continued to contribute with Philippe Sollers to the literary magazine Tel Quel , In 1971, he served as visiting professor at the University of Geneva . 9

10. This is a slide title In 1975 he wrote an autobiography titled Roland Barthes and in 1977 he was elected to the chair of Sémiologie Littéraire at the Collège de France . His last major work, Camera Lucida , is partly an essay about the nature of photography and partly a meditation on photographs of his mother. The book contains many reproductions of photographs. 10

11. This is a slide title On 25 February 1980, Roland Barthes was knocked down by a laundry van while walking home through the streets of Paris. One month later, on 26 March, he died from the chest injuries he sustained in the accident. Barthes's earliest ideas reacted to the trend of existentialist philosophy that was prominent in France during the 1940s. 11

12. This is a slide title In Michelet, a critical analysis of the French historian Jules Michelet, Barthes developed the notions Barthes's many monthly contributions, collected in his Mythologies (1957), frequently interrogated specific cultural materials in order to expose how bourgeois society asserted its values through them 12

13. This is a slide title For example, Barthes cited the portrayal of wine in French society. Its description as a robust and healthy habit is a bourgeois ideal that is contradicted by certain realities He found semiotics, the study of signs, useful in these interrogations. 13

14. This is a slide title He developed a theory of signs to demonstrate this perceived deception. In The Fashion System Barthes showed how this adulteration of signs could easily be translated into words. 14

15. This is a slide title As Barthes's work with structuralism began to flourish around the time of his debates with Picard His investigation of structure focused on revealing the importance of language in writing, which he felt was overlooked by old criticism. 15

16. This is a slide title Barthes's "Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative" is concerned with examining the correspondence between the structure of a sentence and that of a larger narrative. While Barthes found structuralism to be a useful tool and believed that discourse of literature could be formalized . 16

17. This is a slide title In the late 1960s, radical movements were taking place in literary criticism. Such thought led Barthes to consider the limitations not just of signs and symbols, but also of Western culture's dependency on beliefs of constancy and ultimate standards. 17

18. This is a slide title He travelled to Japan in 1966 where he wrote Empire of Signs (published in 1970), In the wake of this trip Barthes wrote what is largely considered to be his best-known work, the essay " The Death of the Author " (1968). Barthes also attempted to reinterpret the mind-body dualism theory 18

19. This is a slide title His body theory emphasized the formation of the self through bodily cultivation. The theory, which is also described as ethico -political entity, considers the idea of the body as one that functions as a "fashion word" that provides the illusion of a grounded discourse . H is theory has influenced the work of other thinkers such as Jerome Bel 19

20. This is a slide title Throughout his career, Barthes had an interest in photography and its potential to communicate actual events. A posthumous collection of essays was published in 1987 by François Wahl, Incidents It contains fragments from his journals: his Soirées de Paris (a 1979 extract from his erotic diary of life in Paris. 20

21. This is a slide title As earlier said Roland Barthes's criticism contributed to the development of theoretical schools such as structuralism, semiotics, and post-structuralism. While his influence is mainly found in these theoretical fields with which his work brought him into contact, it is also felt in every field concerned with the representation of information and models of communication, including computers, photography, music, and literature. 21

22. This is a slide title In 1964, Barthes wrote "The Last Happy Writer" the title of which refers to Voltaire In the essay he commented on the problems of the modern thinker after discovering the relativism in thought and philosophy, discrediting previous philosophers who avoided this difficulty. The sinologist Simon Leys, in a review of Barthes's diary of a trip to China during the Cultural Revolution 22

23. 23 THANKS! Any questions? You can find me at [email protected] shribalajiinfotech.com 9860663446 YouTube Channel SHRI BALAJI INFOTECH