“Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.” 

Roland Barthes was born in 1915. A French literary theorist, philosopher, and critic, he influenced the development of various schools of theory, including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, and post-structuralism. He died in 1980.

His books include Camera Lucida, Image Music Text, Mythologies, A Lover's Discourse and S/Z.

Discover more about Roland Barthes, his work and his influence. 

Read "Rereading Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes" by Brian Dillon in the Guardian.

Buy more books by Roland Barthes.