S/Z: An Essay (Paperback)

by Roland Barthes (Author), Richard Miller (Translator), Richard Howard (Preface) "There are said to be certain Buddhist whose ascetic practices enable them to see a whole landscape in a bean..." (more)
Key Phrases: duplicative chain, gnomic code, word castrato, Mme de Lanty, Cardinal Cicognara, Faubourg Saint-Honore (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Language was both a luxury and a discipline for Barthes. He pursued a subject through language until he cornered it, until its disguise fell away and it was revealed in a kind of epiphany. In his own way, he cleaned the face of Paris more thoroughly than Andre Malraux did when he ordered its buildings washed down to their original colors and arranged for lights to be played upon them. Musing on the kind of painting done by someone like Ingres, Barthes says that 'painters have left movement the amplified sign of the unstable . . . the solemn shudder of a pose impossible to fix in time . . . the motionless overvaluation of the ineffable.' This might also serve as his definition of classical French prose, and in order to escape its encroachment, Barthes prodded, squeezed and sniffed at language, like a great chef buying fruits and vegetables. He munched distinctions. His sentence rhythms were those of a man who talks with his hands."--Anatole Broyard
-- Review

Review

"Language was both a luxury and a discipline for Barthes. He pursued a subject through language until he cornered it, until its disguise fell away and it was revealed in a kind of epiphany. In his own way, he cleaned the face of Paris more thoroughly than Andre Malraux did when he ordered its buildings washed down to their original colors and arranged for lights to be played upon them. Musing on the kind of painting done by someone like Ingres, Barthes says that 'painters have left movement the amplified sign of the unstable . . . the solemn shudder of a pose impossible to fix in time . . . the motionless overvaluation of the ineffable.' This might also serve as his definition of classical French prose, and in order to escape its encroachment, Barthes prodded, squeezed and sniffed at language, like a great chef buying fruits and vegetables. He munched distinctions. His sentence rhythms were those of a man who talks with his hands."--Anatole Broyard

See all Editorial Reviews

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Product Details Paperback: 271 pages Publisher: Hill and Wang; 20th printing edition (January 1, 1975) Language: English ISBN-10: 0374521670 ISBN-13: 978-0374521677 Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,774 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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First Sentence:
There are said to be certain Buddhist whose ascetic practices enable them to see a whole landscape in a bean. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
duplicative chain, gnomic code, word castrato, amorous outing, hermeneutic sentence, aesthetic proof, double understanding, psychological proof, tutor text, historical code, ethnic psychology, hermeneutic code, rhetorical code, plural text, readerly text, writerly text, five codes, symbolic field

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mme de Lanty, Cardinal Cicognara, Faubourg Saint-Honore, Misunderstood Woman, Mme de Rochefide, Prince Chigi, Replete Literature, Book of Life, Girodet's Endymion, Jean Reboul, Mme de Pompadour, Parisian Gold

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 16 books:

• Grain of the Voice by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
• Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
• Empire of Signs by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
• The Responsibility of Forms: Critical Essays on Music, Art, and Representation by Roland Barthes in Front Matter
• Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes in Front Matter

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The Subject of Semiotics by Kaja Silverman Discusses: hermeneutic code readerly text writerly text Structuralism and Semiotics by Terence Haw Ed) Discusses: hermeneutic code readerly text writerly text Roland Barthes by Graham Allen Discusses: tutor text hermeneutic code rhetorical code Heuretics by Gregory L. Ulmer Discusses: word castrato hermeneutic code five codes Loading...

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3 Reviews 5 star:  (2) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 36 of 40 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars What Am I Getting Myself Into?, January 9, 2000 By  Robert Jordan (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Understand what this little book is and its significance. Barthes begins with a short story by Balzac and then plays with its interpretation. He "rereads" the story using different treatments. His goal: to show that there is no Author who gives an Absolute Meaning to the text -- that it's the reader who provides his/her own meaning to it. The Author is dead, long live the Reader. You may or may not get this concept, but trust me, it's a significant shift in literary theory. I've taken the time to write all this in hopes you don't read it the way I did the first time, wondering "What in heck is this?" 24 of 27 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Slow Motion Reading, August 22, 2000 By A Customer I decided to write a paper on Barthes' S/Z after it was highly recommended to me by my professor of literary criticism. Criticism usually puts me to sleep when I read it, and this professor claimed that S/Z kept him up all night, it was so fascinating. This was not the case for my first reading of S/Z, but the more I opened the book, the more interesting it became. Barthes' criticism is of the most unusual kind; what he writes about Balzac's Sarrasine is "neither wholly image nor analysis" - it is his reading of Balzac's text, a very close and detailed reading. I began to appreciate S/Z even more when I began my own project of dissecting a text using Barthes' theories. It was a difficult endeavor, but it helped me to understand what an incredible piece of work S/Z is. Barthes uses Sarrasine to look at liturature - what it is, who reads it, what happens when we read, and to show that reading for the consumption of stories is only to deny ourselves of the real pleasure of the text. 7 of 15 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars The only literary critic you will ever need to read., May 31, 2006 By  Suzanne Tolbert (Fort Worth, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    I first read this book decades ago, at a time when I thought that all literary critics were full of hot air. The world of literary criticism is not as bad as it once was--thanks to M. Barthe, but why bother with the rest, when you can read the best? There is nothing in this book that you can not learn from the poetry of Wallace Stevens or the fiction of Virginia Woolf. However, Barthes does something that I would have thought impossible, had I not read S/Z. Rather than hinting at truths with conflicts or alluding to them with silences the way that poets do, he points his finger right at them and names them with simple, easy to understand words. He is a lot like William Blake in this way, without the visions of angels.		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; 20th printing edition (January 1, 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374521670
• ISBN-13: 978-0374521677
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,774 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Am I Getting Myself Into?, January 9, 2000

By	Robert Jordan (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Understand what this little book is and its significance. Barthes begins with a short story by Balzac and then plays with its interpretation. He "rereads" the story using different treatments. His goal: to show that there is no Author who gives an Absolute Meaning to the text -- that it's the reader who provides his/her own meaning to it. The Author is dead, long live the Reader. You may or may not get this concept, but trust me, it's a significant shift in literary theory. I've taken the time to write all this in hopes you don't read it the way I did the first time, wondering "What in heck is this?"

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slow Motion Reading, August 22, 2000

By A Customer

I decided to write a paper on Barthes' S/Z after it was highly recommended to me by my professor of literary criticism. Criticism usually puts me to sleep when I read it, and this professor claimed that S/Z kept him up all night, it was so fascinating. This was not the case for my first reading of S/Z, but the more I opened the book, the more interesting it became. Barthes' criticism is of the most unusual kind; what he writes about Balzac's Sarrasine is "neither wholly image nor analysis" - it is his reading of Balzac's text, a very close and detailed reading. I began to appreciate S/Z even more when I began my own project of dissecting a text using Barthes' theories. It was a difficult endeavor, but it helped me to understand what an incredible piece of work S/Z is. Barthes uses Sarrasine to look at liturature - what it is, who reads it, what happens when we read, and to show that reading for the consumption of stories is only to deny ourselves of the real pleasure of the text.

7 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only literary critic you will ever need to read., May 31, 2006

By	Suzanne Tolbert (Fort Worth, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first read this book decades ago, at a time when I thought that all literary critics were full of hot air. The world of literary criticism is not as bad as it once was--thanks to M. Barthe, but why bother with the rest, when you can read the best?

There is nothing in this book that you can not learn from the poetry of Wallace Stevens or the fiction of Virginia Woolf. However, Barthes does something that I would have thought impossible, had I not read S/Z. Rather than hinting at truths with conflicts or alluding to them with silences the way that poets do, he points his finger right at them and names them with simple, easy to understand words. He is a lot like William Blake in this way, without the visions of angels.