Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Bartheswas a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design theory, anthropology and post-structuralism...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth12 November 1915
CountryFrance
Roland Barthes quotes about
agents world photographer
All those young photographers who are at work in the world, determined upon the capture of actuality, do not know that they are agents of Death.
infinite corrections
Flaubert had infinite correction to perform.
passion hiding-something essence
To hide a passion totally (or even to hide, more simply, its excess) is inconceivable: not because the human subject is too weak, but because passion is in essence made to be seen: the hiding must be seen: I want you to know that I am hiding something from you, that is the active paradox I must resolve: at one and the same time it must be known and not known: I want you to know that I don't want to show my feelings: that is the message I address to the other.
literature world-literature answers
Literature is the question minus the answer.
absence responsible worldliness
I make the other’s absence responsible for my worldliness.
erotic body glimpse
Is not the most erotic part of the body wherever the clothing affords a glimpse?
crazy jealous men
As a jealous man, I suffer four times over: because I am jealous, because I blame myself for being so, because I fear that my jealousy will wound the other, because I allow myself to be subject to a banality: I suffer from being excluded, from being aggressive, from being crazy, and from being common.
society way retreat
There is only one way left to escape the alienation of present day society: to retreat ahead of it.
fun eclectic-style eclectic
I have tried to be as eclectic as I possibly can with my professional life, and so far it's been pretty fun.
understanding literature trouble
Literature is without proofs. By which it must be understood that it cannot prove, not only what it says, but even that it is worth the trouble of saying it.
clouds trying would-be
Contemporary poetry ... tries to transform the sign back into meaning: its ideal, ultimately, would be to reach not the meaning of words, but the meaning of things themselves. This is why it clouds the language, increases as much as it can the abstractness of the concept and the arbitrariness of the sign and stretches to the limit the link between signifier and signified.
sarcastic time truth
What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth.
stories failing obliged
Those who fail to reread are obliged to read the same story everywhere.
wine snacks speech
Wine is a part of society because it provides a basis not only for a morality but also for an environment; it is an ornament in the slightest ceremonials of French daily life, from the snack to the feast, from the conversation at the local cafT to the speech at a formal dinner.