The Three Paradoxes of Roland Barthes
Description:... In the field of contemporary literary studies, Roland Barthes (1915-1980) remains an influential figure. Yet the tendency in America to over-simplify his works as structuralist has prevented a thorough understanding of Barthes's unfolding as a critic and author. Patrizia Lombardo rejects an absolutist or developmental assessment of his career. Insisting that his works can best be understood in terms of the paradoxes he perceived in the very activity of writing, Lombardo similarly sees in Barthes the crucial ambiguity that determines the modern writer - an irresistible attraction for something new, different, breaking with the past, yet also an unavoidable scorn for the contemporary world.
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