Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes is one of the leading theorists in studying semiotics, the study of the signs. In this context, a sign is something that conveys meaning. One of Barthes main themes was the importance of stopping confusion between culture and nature or the naturalisation of social phenomena. Another important theme he studied was the significance of being careful with how we use words and symbols.
Barthes commonly expresses his work by using a lot of words to explain a few. He gives a detailed analysis of single images, passages and short texts to look into how they work. His work was also known to be in a constant systemisation. He would draw up something similar to a blue print of the areas he’s studying and show how the different parts link together.
In Barthes work he commonly uses the Saussurean analysis; the difference between signifier and signified and how important it is. The signified sometimes makes an appearance outside language and social construction whereas he signifier does not. The relationship between them is arbitrary and there are numerous ways a signified could be shown in different objects divided up and or language.
Barthe is an anti-essentialist and is strongly opposed to the view that there is anything contained in a particular signifier that makes it correspond to a signified. He is best known for showing the social structure of language by daily experiences.
Barthe does not fully apply Saussure’s theory and he replaces the term ‘arbitrary’ with motivated due to the relationship between the two only being arbitrary from a language point of view. Barthes believed signs are mediated by language and he normally reads non-linguistic signs through linguistic signs.
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