O Rolandu Barthesovi

The book is a key work of Barthes' middle period. It consists of a sequence of stylized biographical fragments in which reflections on his own subjectivity and corporeality are intertwined with theoretical thinking. This delineates an area of writing and thinking that becomes increasingly typical of Barthes as time progresses.

Roland Barthes (1915-1980) studied classical literature and philology. Barthes's work never formed a coherent whole that followed a unified theoretical line. He gradually moved from the critique of history to general and applied semiology, and from the early 1970s onwards he gradually developed a quite distinctive way of thinking about literary texts, characterized by a resignation to generalizing systems and a gradual fragmentation and emphasis on particulars and contingencies. Barthes's last text is an essay on photography, entitled Světlá komorora (Czech: Light Chamber, Fra 2005), which in many ways anticipates a new turning point in the development of Barthes's work, which was abruptly interrupted by his death in a car accident in 1980.

Czech edition