ABSTRACT
French essayist, linguist, literary critic, and semiotician, Roland Barthes is hard to pigeonhole. Studying the tie between Barthes' life and work is thus possible only by treating Barthes as a text. This is actually what he also undertakes in one of his latest works, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes. Central to understanding Barthes' life and work is the relationship with the French bourgeoisie. In other words, structuralism helps unveil the logics of meaning construction, whereas the process of meaning attribution remains inevitably personal. Consumer and marketing studies can profit extensively from Barthes' literary critic. Barthes' literary critic is also inspiring for its substance. Reflections on the pleasure arising from a text are key to all research dealing with hedonic consumption. Analysis of the narrative structure and codes supporting meaning attribution is then foundational to communication research and to works focusing on narrative transportation.
