Description
This book provides a lively introduction to the work of Roland Barthes, one of the twentieth century's most important literary and cultural theorists. The book covers all aspects of Barthes's writings including his work on literary theory, mass communications, the theatre and politics. Moriarty argues that Barthes's writing must not be seen as an unchanging body of thought, and that we should study his ideas in the contexts within which they were formulated, debated and developed.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
A Note on References x
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
Part I Sign and Ideology 15
1 Myths 19
2 Writing and Responsibility 31
3 Barthes on Theatre 44
Part II The Structuralist Activity 53
4 Literary Structuralism I: The Ethnography of Tragedy 59
5 'A Little Scientific Delirium': Barthes as Semiologist 73
6 Literary Structuralism II: Narrative Analysis 91
Part III Beyond the Sign 103
7 The Post-Structural Analysis of Narrative 117
8 Text and its Pleasures 143
Part IV Late Barthes 155
9 Affirming the Imaginary 169
10 The Body 186
11 Image and Real 195
Biographical Appendix 209
Notes 211
Bibliography 241
Index 249
