S/Z: An Essay

Roland Barthes

Macmillan, Jan 1, 1975 - Literary Criticism - 271 pages

Preface by Richard Howard. Translated by Richard Miller. This is Barthes's scrupulous literary analysis of Balzac's short story "Sarrasine."

What people are saying

Review: S/Z

User Review  - Eric Lind - Goodreads

Uh, well. It's difficult to say anything about this, as I don't believe that Barthes presents anything, which, at least to me, is profoundly new. As a work of theory it suffers under the French ...

Review: S/Z

User Review  - i! - Goodreads

S/Z: ★ ACT. "To critique"; "to dissect"; "to autopsy": the Barthesian text serves as a scalpel and scale with which Barthes qua critic can cut off and weigh the devices, symbols and meanings [SEM ...

Contents

• SZ: 3
• Three Codes Together: 139
• The Casuistry of Discourse: 140
• Narcissistic Proof: 143
• double understanding: 144
• Psychological Proof: 147
• The Voice of the Reader: 151
• The Scene: 154
• Everything holds together: 156
• How an Orgy Is Created: 157
• The Braid: 160
• metonymic falsehood: 162
• BeingCastrated and Castration: 163
• The Transposed Kiss: 165
• Aesthetic Proof: 167
• The Signified as Conclusion: 171
• The Mastery of Meaning: 173
• The Declaration of Love: 176
• Character and Discourse: 178
• determineddeterminant: 181
• To Die of Ignorance: 184
• Before Castration: 185
• Denouement and Disclosure: 187
• Voice of the Person: 190
• Glissando: 197
• Pandemia: 198
• Literature Replete: 200
• Interrupted Replication: 202
• The Empiric Voice: 203
• The Voice of Science: 205
• From Sculpture to Painting: 207
• Voice of Truth: 209
• The Balzacian Text: 211
• Modification: 212
• xcn The Three Points of Entry: 214
• The Pensive Text: 216
• APPEnDICES: 221
• Sequence of Actions: 255

About the author

Roland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and the classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Romania 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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: S/Z: An Essay
• Author: Roland Barthes
• Translated by: Richard Miller
• Publisher: Macmillan, 1975
• ISBN: 0374521670, 9780374521677
• Length: 271 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Sociolinguistics; Literary Criticism / European / French; Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory