decorative pillows
roland barthes
p thirty years ago the english speaking world was discovering the work of some of the key poststructuralist theorists for the first time jacques derrida s of grammatology had just appeared in translation as had roland barthes s z jacques lacan s crits gilles deleuze and f lix guattari s anti oedipus michel foucault s discipline and punish and pierre macherey s a theory of literary production . english editions of julia kristeva s desire in language and jean fran ois lyotard s the postmodern condition were just around the corner . p the subsequent theory wars that raged on campuses in the 1980s are now generally seen as a thing of the past poststructuralism is now largely a familiar and widely taught part of the academic landscape in the english speaking world . p of all the poststructuralists roland barthes 1915 80 is probably the most widely read . mythologies has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in paperback and has never been out of print since it first appeared in english in 1972 . and the death of the author his short essay dating from 1968 is probably the most widely anthologized theoretical text of all . moreover even though he died over a quarter of a century ago barthes remains especially alive to english speaking audiences in that his voluminous writings are still being translated into english . p reflecting the vibrancy and dynamism of barthes studies this four volume collection a new title in routledge s critical evaluations in cultural theory series brings together the best and most influential cutting edge and canonical research on roland barthes . the gathered materials address the full range of barthes extremely diverse output to provide the definitive evaluation of his work . p with a full index together with a comprehensive introduction newly written by the editor which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context roland barthes is an essential work of reference . it is destined to be valued by scholars students and researchers as a vital research resource .