Roland Barthes Quotes

A collection of quotes by Roland Barthes.

Roland Barthes was a renowned French literary theorist, philosopher, and semiotician born on November 12, 1915, in Cherbourg, France. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the field of literary criticism and cultural studies. Barthes received his education at the University of Paris where he studied classical literature and grammar.

Throughout his career, Barthes explored various aspects of literature, language, and culture. His groundbreaking work "Mythologies," published in 1957, dissected contemporary popular culture and exposed the hidden ideological messages embedded within everyday objects and practices. This innovative approach revolutionized the way people understood and analyzed cultural artifacts.

Barthes was a prominent proponent of structuralism, a theoretical framework that seeks to uncover the underlying structures and systems that shape human behavior, language, and society. His research interests expanded to include the study of signs and symbols, culminating in the publication of his seminal work "Elements of Semiology" in 1967.

Barthes' work extended beyond academic circles, and he made significant contributions to the fields of fashion, photography, and art criticism. His unique perspective and ability to reveal the multiple layers of meaning in cultural expressions left an indelible mark on contemporary theory and criticism.

Sadly, Roland Barthes' brilliant career was cut short when he passed away on March 25, 1980, following a tragic accident. However, his ideas and theories continue to resonate in academic circles, making him one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.

Historically and politically, the petit-bourgeois is the key

Historically and politically, the petit-bourgeois is the key to the century. The bourgeois and proletariat classes have become abstractions: the petite-bourgeoisie, in contrast, is everywhere, you can see it everywhere, even in the areas of the bourgeois and the proletariat, what's left of them.

There are people who think that wrestling is an ignoble spor

There are people who think that wrestling is an ignoble sport. Wrestling is not sport, it is a spectacle, and it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque.

Wine is a part of society because it provides a basis not on

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 caf? to the speech at a formal dinner.

To endow the writer publicly with a good fleshly body, to re

To endow the writer publicly with a good fleshly body, to reveal that he likes dry white wine and underdone steak, is to make even more miraculous for me, and of a more divine essence, the products of his art. Far from the details of his daily life bringing nearer to me the nature of his inspiration and making it clearer, it is the whole mystical singularity of his condition which the writer emphasizes by such confidences. For I cannot but ascribe to some superhumanly the existence of beings vast enough to wear blue pajamas at the very moment when they manifest themselves as universal conscience.

Through the mythology of Einstein, the world blissfully rega

Through the mythology of Einstein, the world blissfully regained the image of knowledge reduced to a formula.

Knowledge

The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition...

The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition... always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning.

Society

What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my

What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth.

Cynicism

Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see t

Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive.

Conversation

I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of t

I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object.

Automobiles

I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders b

I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient.

Power

Pleasure is continually disappointed, reduced, deflated, in

Pleasure is continually disappointed, reduced, deflated, in favor of strong, noble values: Truth, Death, Progress, Struggle, Joy, etc. Its victorious rival is Desire: we are always being told about Desire, never about Pleasure.

Pleasure

Myth is neither a lie nor a confession: it is an inflexion.

Myth is neither a lie nor a confession: it is an inflexion.

Mythology Myths

To try to write love is to confront the muck of language: th

To try to write love is to confront the muck of language: that region of hysteria where language is both too much and too little, excessive and impoverished.

Love

Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It

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

To hide a passion totally (or even to hide, more simply, its

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.

Passion

Other countries drink to get drunk, and this is accepted by

Other countries drink to get drunk, and this is accepted by everyone; in France, drunkenness is a consequence, never an intention. A drink is felt as the spinning out of a pleasure, not as the necessary cause of an effect which is sought: wine is not only a philter, it is also the leisurely act of drinking.

Alcohol/alcoholism

There are two kinds of liberalism. A liberalism which is alw

There are two kinds of liberalism. A liberalism which is always, subterraneously authoritative and paternalistic, on the side of one's good conscience. And then there is a liberalism which is more ethical than political; one would have to find another name for this. Something like a profound suspension of judgment.

Liberalism

All official institutions of language are repeating machines

All official institutions of language are repeating machines: school, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat the same structure, the same meaning, often the same words: the stereotype is a political fact, the major figure of ideology.

Language

The face of Garbo is an Idea, that of Hepburn an Event.

The face of Garbo is an Idea, that of Hepburn an Event.

Acting Actors

The New is not a fashion, it is a value.

The New is not a fashion, it is a value.

Fashion