Roland Barthes Biography

Roland Barthes was a French literary philosopher best known for influencing structuralism, semiotics and anthropology.

 

 

 Born on November 12, 1915, in Cherbourg, France, French literary philosopher Roland Barthes was educated at the Sorbonne, and went on to help establish structuralism as one of the leading intellectual movements of the 20th century. His work made important advances in the areas of semiotics, anthropology and post-structuralism. Barthes died in Paris in 1980.

 

 

Early Life

 

Roland Gérard Barthes was born on November 12th, 1915, in Cherbourg, France. Barthes' father (Louis) was a naval officer who died at battle in the North Sea, this all happen before his son was one year old. His mother (Henriette),his aunt and grandmother then raised him in the village of Urt and then later in the city of Bayonne. Barthes' grandfather (Louis-Gustave Binger) was an archetypal French colonialist and explorer of the Niger Loop, he was also an author of Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée (1891). He was also the founder of the Côte d’Ivoire colony and was appointed their governor in 1893. Though his grandfather was very wealthy, food  was often scarce the household, as his grandparents rejected  to help them after Henriette gave birth to an illegitimate child. His mother was then forced into working as a bookbinder to keep her family from starvation . When asked to describe his grandfather Barthes' stated "He had nothing to say". At eleven he and his family would then move to Paris. It was in Paris where he would first study at the Lycée Montagne, form 1930 to 1934, he was a student at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. From 1935 to 1939, Barthes studied Sorbonne, where he achieved a license in classical letters. He battled with poor health throughout this period, suffering from tuberculosis or TB, which meant he had to be treated in isolation in a sanatorium. Due to these disturbances his academic career began to decline and his ability to take qualifying examinations also. This also stopped him from being able to join the military service during World War II , and by being kept out of the major French universities this meant that he had to travel to a lot of different teaching positions, Barthes later claimed an intentional avoidance of major degree-awarding universities, and did so throughout his career.

 

Career

  

Between  1939 to 1948 Barthes mainly spent this period trying to get a license in grammar and philology and publishing his first papers, during which he still struggled with his ill health. In 1948, he returned to his academic work, gaining some short-term roles at institutes in France, Romania, and Egypt. During this time he began writing Writing Degree Zero (1953). In 1952, Barthes stayed at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, where he studied lexicology and sociology. It was there where he began to write a successful series of bi-monthly essays for the popular magazine Les Lettres Nouvelles, where he took apart myths of popular culture. Even though only knowing the bare English he lectured at Middlebury College in 1957. This is where he met Richard Howard, poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator to much of Barthes' work from French to English.

Barthes became known as a leading critic of his time with his 1977 book, A Lover's Discourse, which sold more than 60,000 copies in his native country. The book was translated into other languages to reach audiences throughout Europe and in America. Barthes's works influenced structuralism, semiotics and anthropology.

 

 Barthes' works still conflicted with the traditional academic views of literary criticism into the 1960s. His brutal remarks in his papers  led to a standoff with a well established professor of literature, Raymond Picard, who butchered Barthes and his ideas. Barthes' reply to such accusations  in Criticism and Truth (1966). Here he  documented his discussion and reasoning of the language of literary criticism of a lack of concern with the finer points of language and of careful oblivious towards challenging theories, such as Marxism, which is a method of social analysis that focuses on class relations and social conflict.

In 1970, Barthes produced what many consider to be his most substantial work, critical reading S/Z. In 1975, he wrote an autobiography called Roland Barthes, after which he was later elected to the chair of Sémiologie Littéraire at the Collége de France in 1977. Later in the year his mother to whom he had cherished, died at the age of 85.  After losing his mother Barthes only really had one last major work, Camera Lucida. This was dedicated to his mother with imagery of her and also about the nature of photography.The book contains many reproductions of photographs, though none of them are of Henriette.

Personal Life

Barthes always encountered poor health throughout his life up until his death. Which did not help with him realizing that he was a homosexual, which was highly frond upon at the time, affected his self-esteem and motivation. when journeying through his life he found close friendships along the way with people like Richard Howard and  psychologist and writer Julia Kristeva, of whom he once stated that, "She's the only person I'm really in love with, the only woman who could make me change my sexuality." He was also noted to have a very rich voice to which he took singing lessons. 

 

 On 25th February 1980, Roland Barthes was hit by a laundry van while walking home in Paris. One month later he passed away due to the chest injuries he sustained in that accident on March 25th 1980, aged of 64.