A Barthes Reader

This selection presents a chronological trajectory from the aesthetics of absence to a position that holds literature as the embrace of subject and object. Barthes, perhaps the seminal French literary theorist of the 20th century, produced more than 15 books in his lifetime. Most of the selections here are essays, and are complete. Whole sections from several larger works, such as "Writing Degree Zero," are given uncut. In the case of the short sections drawn from different parts of "The Pleasure of the Text" and "Roland Barthes," the jumps in the text are indicated by three dots. The "essential" Barthes. 495p.