Roland Barthes: The Early Years

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes, 1977, © Louis Monnier

While Roland Barthes’s rise to prominence in the late 1950s, provides the focus of many studies, including my own Barthes, the early part of his life and career is not covered in any great detail in most general introductions. The following essays are meant to fill this gap:

  1. Childhood in Bayonne (1915-1924)
  2. Teenage Years in Paris (1924-1933)
  3. Tuberculosis – ‘A Substitute Existence’ (1934-1945)
  4. 1946: ‘The Onset of Productive Life’
  5. Michelet (1954) – An Anachrony
  6. Writing Degree Zero