Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes, born on the 12th November 1915, was a French literary theorist, a philosopher, a critic and semiotician. He was born in Cherbourg in Normandy, where he was the son of naval officer, Louis Barthes. Roland never knew his father, as he killed in battle whilst Roland was only 1 year old. When he was eleven years old, his family moved to Paris, though his attachment to his roots would remain strong throughout his life. He explored a range of theories, such as structuralism, semiotics, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and post-structuralism and influenced the development of schools with said theories.


Roland Barthes developed the idea of semiotics (the study of signs), his idea was that when a person sees a sign they will interpret it differently to someone else. He developed this theory in his paper "The Death of the Author", in this paper he explains how the author of a book is less important than the audience because the author is only responsible for putting the words in order, it is the job of the audience to give them meaning. He also explains how different signs have pluralistic meaning, for example a swastika is perceived by the western world as the symbol of the Nazis and their atrocity's, however to a Buddhist it is the sign of peace.


In  1977 he was elected chair of Semiologie Litteraire at the college of france, however his mother Henriette whom he was very close too, died at aged 80, they had lived together for 60 years. This was a serious shock to Barthes - he made his last major piece of work 'Camera Lucida'. 3 years later, after leaving a lunch party, Barthes was hit by a laundry van on the 25th of February 1980, he succumbed to his injuries and died later on 25th March aged 64.


Roland suffered from tuberculosis between 1935 - 1939, he showed great promise as a student but his physical breakdowns disrupted his academic career affecting his studies but kept him out of the military service during WW2. 1939 - 1948 he obtained license in grammar and philosophy, publishing papers and taking part in medical studies. 1928 he returned to education, gaining numerous short term positions as institutes in Egypt, Romania and France. 1952 he studied lexicology and sociology. by the 1960s Barthes established a reputation for himself, by 1967 he was writing his best known work, one of his pieces being an essay called 'The Death of the Author'.