Roland Barthes is a central figure in the study of language, literature, culture and the media, both as innovator and guide. This book prepares readers for their first encounter with his crucial writings on some of the most important theoretical debates of the 20th century, including: existentialism and Marxism; semiology, or the language of signs; structuralism and narrative analysis; post-structuralism, deconstruction and the death of the author;...