An excuse for delighting in the pleasures of (the) text
Today is Roland Barthes' birthday. To celebrate, cozy up with a book and a glass of wine by the fire for a little jouissance.
Wikipedia, of course, has more important things to do than note the ironic deaths of its subjects, so I'll take on that job here: Roland Barthes, that master semiotician and crucial figure straddling the boundary between structuralism and poststructuralism, was killed by a car when he crossed against the light at an intersection. The context of a sign is indeed crucial in determining its meaning.
2 comments:
How very witty of you. This made me laugh, especially after having sat through one too many lessons of 'semiotics!' peace!
I remember that feeling well from sitting in one of my first classes at Rice, on subject-formation theory in American literature.
I DO like Barthes, but I find it's fun to poke occasional fun at one's intellectual heroes. "Fun," here, includes my head-scratching as I ponder the way he died.
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