Customer Reviews

Sz

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Barthes shows his genius in Sz. He takes us step by step through the semiology of Balzac's literature. He demonstrates the work and then talks about the "meaning" on other levels.

This is a VERY unique work. It begins with a 217 page disassembly of "Sarrasine". He explores not only how the work is assembled but almost each and every word and phrase. Appendix I is the 33 page original text of the novella in full. Appendix II is the Sequence of Actions where every action is broken down and cross referenced with its lexial position in the novella. Appendix III is the Summary of the Contents of the whole lecture itself.

The whole work boils down to an understanding of the novella in the same sense of understanding why a painter chose a certain color to depict a tree in the background as it relates to the whole work.

Very facinating and in no sense trivial -- but, at the same time remarkably entertaining and readable.

This is THE place to begin a serious study of literature or semiotics.

-Mike