Roland Barthes (1915–80) was a professor at the Collège de France until his death. His books include Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography; Image, Music, Text; and A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments. Chris Turner is a writer and translator who lives in Birmingham, England. He has translated Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Aftermath of War, Portraits, and Critical Essays and André Gorz’s Ecologica and The Immaterial, all published by Seagull Books.

“The most striking quality in this volume of newly translated essays by Barthes, written between 1950 and 1977, is their freshness. . . . A humane and consistent vision threads through them: Barthes asserts firmly that literature matters, those in power lie, and killing for the sake of a doctrine is wrong. He writes with a clarity and brevity that strike to the heart of issues still relevant decades after his death: race, propaganda, abuse of power. . . . This collection is strongly recommended: it more than repays the reader’s time and effort.”

• Do Revolutions Follow Laws?The ‘Scandal’ of MarxismHumanism without WordsPhenomenology and Dialectical MaterialismOn a Metaphor. (Is Marxism a Church?)Left-Wing Writers or Left-Wing Literature?Yes, There Definitely is a Left-Wing LiteratureThe Masters and the SlavesAm I a Marxist?Is Anti-Semitism Right- or Left-Wing?Home KnittingThe Choice of a CareerOn a Use of the Verb “To Be”On the De Gaulle RegimeOn the Left-Wing CriticismA Case of Cultural CriticismSo, How Was China?UtopiaMythologyLetter to Bernard-Henri LévyThe Minorities of the MinoritiesRemarks on ViolenceReply to a Question on Artists and Politics

Roland Barthes (1915–80) was a professor at the Collège de France until his death. His books include Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography; Image, Music, Text; and A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments. Chris Turner is a writer and translator who lives in Birmingham, England. He has translated Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Aftermath of War, Portraits, and Critical Essays and André Gorz’s Ecologica and The Immaterial, all published by Seagull Books.

“The most striking quality in this volume of newly translated essays by Barthes, written between 1950 and 1977, is their freshness. . . . A humane and consistent vision threads through them: Barthes asserts firmly that literature matters, those in power lie, and killing for the sake of a doctrine is wrong. He writes with a clarity and brevity that strike to the heart of issues still relevant decades after his death: race, propaganda, abuse of power. . . . This collection is strongly recommended: it more than repays the reader’s time and effort.”

• Do Revolutions Follow Laws?The ‘Scandal’ of MarxismHumanism without WordsPhenomenology and Dialectical MaterialismOn a Metaphor. (Is Marxism a Church?)Left-Wing Writers or Left-Wing Literature?Yes, There Definitely is a Left-Wing LiteratureThe Masters and the SlavesAm I a Marxist?Is Anti-Semitism Right- or Left-Wing?Home KnittingThe Choice of a CareerOn a Use of the Verb “To Be”On the De Gaulle RegimeOn the Left-Wing CriticismA Case of Cultural CriticismSo, How Was China?UtopiaMythologyLetter to Bernard-Henri LévyThe Minorities of the MinoritiesRemarks on ViolenceReply to a Question on Artists and Politics

Roland Barthes (1915–80) was a professor at the Collège de France until his death. His books include Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography; Image, Music, Text; and A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments. Chris Turner is a writer and translator who lives in Birmingham, England. He has translated Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Aftermath of War, Portraits, and Critical Essays and André Gorz’s Ecologica and The Immaterial, all published by Seagull Books.

“The most striking quality in this volume of newly translated essays by Barthes, written between 1950 and 1977, is their freshness. . . . A humane and consistent vision threads through them: Barthes asserts firmly that literature matters, those in power lie, and killing for the sake of a doctrine is wrong. He writes with a clarity and brevity that strike to the heart of issues still relevant decades after his death: race, propaganda, abuse of power. . . . This collection is strongly recommended: it more than repays the reader’s time and effort.”

• Do Revolutions Follow Laws?The ‘Scandal’ of MarxismHumanism without WordsPhenomenology and Dialectical MaterialismOn a Metaphor. (Is Marxism a Church?)Left-Wing Writers or Left-Wing Literature?Yes, There Definitely is a Left-Wing LiteratureThe Masters and the SlavesAm I a Marxist?Is Anti-Semitism Right- or Left-Wing?Home KnittingThe Choice of a CareerOn a Use of the Verb “To Be”On the De Gaulle RegimeOn the Left-Wing CriticismA Case of Cultural CriticismSo, How Was China?UtopiaMythologyLetter to Bernard-Henri LévyThe Minorities of the MinoritiesRemarks on ViolenceReply to a Question on Artists and Politics