The Afterlives of Roland Barthes

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Roland Barthes the author of such enduringly influential works as Mythologies and Camera Lucida - was one of the most important cultural critics of the post-war era. Since his death in 1980, new writings have continued to be discovered and published. The Afterlives of Roland Barthes is the first book to revisit and reassess Barthes thought in light of these posthumously published writings. Covering work such as Barthes Mourning Diary, the notes for his projected Vita Nova and many writings yet to be translated into English, Neil Badmington reveals a very different Barthes of today than the figure familiar from the writings published in his lifetime.

Reviews

An exploration of Roland Barthess posthumously published writings, Neil Badmingtons book offers an important contribution to Barthes Studies. Badmingtons text, both pedagogically accessible and convincingly argued, places import on Barthess posthumous literature, which includes Mourning Diary, Travels in China, and the unfinished Vita Nova, to reappraise the major texts published during the semioticians lifetime The critical rigour, clarity, and accessibility of Badmingtons text would be appreciate by Barthesian scholars and university students working from the perspective of both French and Anglophone Studies. The wealth of accompanying end-of-chapter notes offers rich biographical details and bibliographic references, which further underscore this works dialogic contribution to Barthes Studies. Far from haunting, as Badmington reminds us, Barthess afterlives are very much kept alive in the interstitial pleasures and boredoms of his prose. * Modern Language Review *
This book is an important contribution to scholarship on Barthes in English, and in addition to its detailed and original analyses there are many interesting asides in the footnotes It is also a model of stylish and engaging academic prose. * The Years Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *
Bartheslike Heidegger and Foucaulthas had a prolific posthumous publishing career. Badmington (Cardiff Univ., UK) undertakes to situate this diverse posthumous work. With remarkable concision, he not only explicates this work but also contextualizes it within Barthess better-known published work. For instance, Badmington's exploration of the Mourning Diary in essence shows one the genesis of Camera Lucida. It is precisely this careful critical balancingof the exegesis of the new and the anchoring in the well knownthat makes this study so valuable. Accomplished with Badmingtons scholarly care, this critical balance serves ultimately not to provide origin stories to texts that are now part of the theoretical-critical canon, but rather to open up the originary force of Barthess thinking, to remove it from the danger of overfamiliarity. Badmington concludes his study with an intriguing consideration of Barthes and Hitchcocka figure noted for his conspicuous absence in Barthess work. A final, Barthesian note: Bloomsbury is to be commended for making a book that feels nice in ones hands. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *
Badmington is at his best when his inquiry is personal and playful ... A chapter on "the neglected history of boredom" in Barthes is the book's most engaging and original contribution. * Times Literary Supplement *
Badmingtons mode of address, across these diverse topics, is engaging and nuanced, and supported by a wealth of textual, theoretical, and biographical detail. * French Studies *
Badmington succeeds in delivering eloquent and scholarly yet highly readable prose on one of the most challenging contemporary critics [] Badmingtons study is required reading for Barthes scholars, while non-specialists will also find it an enjoyable read since it is both a personal record and a scholarly work on the history of understanding Barthes the notes sections alone are a feast of reading! * Forum for Modern Language Studies *

Author Bio

Neil Badmington is Professor of English at Cardiff University, UK. His previous books include Hitchcock's Magic (2011) and Alien Chic: Posthumanism and the Other Within (2004) and he is the co-editor (with David Tucker) of The Years Work in Critical and Cultural Theory.