Description
Book SynopsisThe only autobiography by the great Roland Barthes, philosopher, literary theorist and semiotician.
This is the autobiography of one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. As idiosyncratic as its author, Barthes plays both commentator and subject to reveal his tastes, habits, passions and regrets. No event, relationship or thought is given priority over any other; no attempt to construct a narrative is made. And yet, via a series of vignettes, Barthes's life and views on a multitude of subjects emerge - from money and love to language and truth.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ADAM PHILLIPS
Trade ReviewHighly original, extremely fertile and inventive, [Barthes] really does represent, in a peculiarly qualified way, a new kind of writing, and he continually discovers new ways of writing about writing... It is a remarkable book * New York Times Book Review *
Anyone who saw [Barthes] as only the stern structuralist, dissecting signs, symbols and systems, must have missed the personal touches that would eventually burst into the open in his weird and wonderful “anti-autobiography” which begins with the announcement that its contents “must all be considered as if spoken by a character in a novel” and proceeds to jump from first to second to third person, accumulating scenes and lists and essay fragment * Telegraph *
Though Barthes left behind disciples, there can be no replacing him; his brilliance had a wavelength all its own
