More than 50 years after its first publication, the Vietnamese translation of Roland Barthes' "Empire of Signs" has just been introduced to a wide audience in Vietnam.
As one of the founders of French structuralism and semiotics, Roland Barthes's ideas have influenced the development of many theoretical schools, including structuralism, semiotics, social theory and poststructuralism...
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| Cover of the book "Empire of Signs". (Source: Nha Nam). |
In 1970, after arriving in Japan under a cultural cooperation program, Roland Barthes wrote Empire of Signs.
In it, he explains what he observed and the almost ubiquitous presence of symbols in the daily lives of Japanese people in general and Tokyo in particular.
In 1976, Roland Barthes was elected to the Collège de France as a professor of Literary Semiotics. This was an honor reserved for Roland Barthes and a recognition of his talent and contributions.
Roland Barthes is particularly famous for developing and expanding the field of semiotics through his works analyzing a series of sign systems, of which The Empire of Signs is one of the typical works.
The Empire of Signs is considered by many Roland Barthes scholars to be one of his masterpieces and a decisive turning point in his career.
According to Roland Barthes, Japan is a country of signs and writing. The title of the book can be understood as meaning Japan is a country where signs reign, "rule as king".
In Empire of Signs , Roland Barthes sketched a picture of Japan of signs, of codes and conventions, of elegance and beauty, of violence and emptiness, in every neighborhood, every station, every shop, every stage or garden... through every face, every handwriting, every piece of tempura, every game of pachinko...
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| Roland Barthes is a major figure in the history of literature and philosophy of the 20th century. |
Besides, Roland Barthes is an enigmatic and difficult author to approach. He himself has tried to make his writings unidentifiable.
Reading Roland Barthes's writings means that the reader condemns himself to a labyrinth of language, in which meaning floats and is impossible to grasp.
Empire of Signs is a classic book that helps readers discover a great thinker of the 20th century, an important semiotician, researcher and literary critic, a man passionate about his time.
Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a famous French semiotician, post-structuralist, and literary critic. He is considered one of the founders of French structuralism and semiotics. He lost his father when he was only one year old, spent his childhood with his mother at his grandparents' house and at the age of nine moved with his mother to Paris. He showed his passion for theater, literature and music from a very early age. Due to tuberculosis, his education was interrupted, but that did not stop him from striving, achieving a profound knowledge and high level that surprised the university community. In 1976, Roland Barthes was elected to the French Institute of Higher Learning (Collège de France), as professor of literary semiotics, a title reserved for him. His notable works: Mythologies, Elements of Semiology, The Death of the Author and The Zero Degree of Writing. |
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