Image - Music - Text

Image-Music-Text brings together major essays by Roland Barthes on the structural analysis of narrative and on issues in literary theory, on the semiotics of photograph and film, and on the practice of music and voice. Throughout the volume runs a constant movement from work to text: an attention to the very ‘grain’ of signifying activity and the desire to follow – in literature, image, film, song and theatre – whatever turns, displaces, shifts, disperses. Stephen Heath, whose translation has been described as ‘skilful and readable’ (TLS) and ‘quite brilliant’ (TES), is the author of Vertige du déplacement, a study of Barthes. His selection of essays, each important in its own right, also serves as ‘the best... introduction so far to Barthes’ career as the slayer of contemporary myths’. (John Sturrock, New Statesman) Roland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Rumania and Egypt, he joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted himself to research in sociology and lexicology. He was a professor at the College de France until his death in 1980. 'Image-Music-Text' brings together major essays by Roland Barthes on the structural analysis of narrative and on issues in literary theory, on the semiotics of photograph and film, on the practice of music and voice. Throughout the volume runs a constant movement 'from work to text': an attention to the very 'grain' of signifying activity and the desire to follow -- in literature, image, film, song and theatre -- whatever turns, displaces, shifts, disperses. Stephen Heath, whose translation has been described as "skilful and readable" (TLS) and "quite brilliant" (TES), is the author of 'Vertige du déplacement', a study of Barthes. His selection of essays, each important in its own right, also serves as "the best ... introduction so far to Barthesʹ career as the slayer of contemporary myths" (John Sturrock, 'New Statesman).' -- Back cover Leaving aside the problems involved in any translation, special difficulties arise when (as here) there is (as yet?) no real overlap in theoretical context between the two languages in question.