Description:

Roland Barthes stands out as one of last century’s leading European essayists and critics. Whether writing on popular phenomena like soap-ads and wrestling, Honoré de Balzac’s work, or the most private of photographs, Barthes has indelibly influenced the way we think of the relationship between words, images, objects, and affects.

To mark the centenary of his birth, the Department of French and Italian presents a one-day interdisciplinary symposium, bringing together renowned European and American scholars. The symposium aims at interrogating Barthes’ complex legacy in the fields of literary and visual studies while also questioning the notion of legacy itself: How do we critically inherit an author’s critical legacy? What kind of relationship to the future does a legacy open up for those who actively receive it?