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
fashion past doe
Fashion postulates an achrony, a time which does not exist; here the past is shameful and the present is constantly "eaten up" by the Fashion being heralded.
survival unfaithful absence
This endured absence is nothing more or less than forgetfulness. I am, intermittently, unfaithful. This is the condition of my survival.
order ideas substance
As a language, Garbo's singularity was of the order of the concept, that of Audrey Hepburn is of the order of the substance; the face of Garbo is an Idea, that of Hepburn, an Event.
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.
sound woods cameras
Cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing, and perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographic mechanism the living sound of the wood.
desire skins language-and-power
Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.
language seducing wounds
I am interested in language because it wounds or seduces me.
sad grief bereavement
Each of us has his own rhythm of suffering.
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.
photography messages code
The photographic image... is a message without a code.
absence responsible worldliness
I make the other’s absence responsible for my worldliness.
fashion novelty values
The new is not a fashion, it is a value.