elrolanbarte

Here we are, again! I'll start simply: today I'm going to talk about Roland Barthes, a french linguist and semiotician. Are linguistics part of my field? Not exactly, but I think that communication is my field, then semiotics are.
Why Roland Barthes? He wrote so many interesting books, like Mithologies or Fragments d'un discours amoureux, and look at his photo: he could be adorable if he wants. The other adorable one is Umberto Eco, I think: like an old man you could drink a beer with.
Roland was one of the gang when structuralism was a thing: friend with Foucault, Althusser, Lacan, Deleuze and all the mai 68 ones.
Well, besides his greatest hits, I like too much one book/documentary of Barthes called Les Sports et les Hommes, where he is the voice-over talking about the meaning of different sports in different societies. For example, the ritual behind the rodeo in Spain, or the practice in hockey in Canada. The idea that the death of the bull represents the victory of human against nature stood in my head all that week.