Acknowledgements viii Bibliographical note x Foreword by Jonathan Culler xi Prologue: The death of Roland Barthes 1 Introduction 13 The voice 13 'Life' 15 1 Setting off 24 A father dead at sea 27 The mother as replacement father 35 2 'Gochokissime' 48 From the seaside. 48 . to the heart of Paris 55 3 His whole life ahead of him 64 The years of apprenticeship 64 Elective affinities 75 4 Barthes and Gide 83 The beginning and the end 84 Music on the large scale and the small 87 Homosexuality 90 Journal 92 5 His whole life behind him 99 From Antiquity to Greece 99 From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic 106 From the Atlantic to behind the lines 110 6 New vistas 121 The body and its illness 121 'At the sanatorium, I was happy' 126 The first texts 133 7 Sorties 143 Far from the sanatorium 143 'Nadeau, to whom I owe that capital thing, a debut .' 147 Far from Paris (1). Bucharest 150 Far from Paris (2). Alexandria 159 Modes of writing: the Ministry and 'Degree Zero' 164 8 Barthes and Sartre 177 The argument about responsibilities 178 Childhood and history 184 An invitation to the imaginary 188 9 Scenes 193 Liquidations 194 Theatre 205 The year 1955 216 Theatricality 221 10 Structures 231 The sign 232 The École 237 Structure 248 The house 257 11 Literature 268 Encounters 269 Literary criticism 274 Barthes explains himself 283 The year 1966 291 Thinking the image 300 12 Events 306 Absences 307 The book on May: 'Sade, Fourier, Loyola' 317 Changes 320 Cut-ups 331 13 Barthes and Sollers 343 Friendship 346 Everyone's off to China 354 14 The body 367 The eye and the hand 371 Taste 379 Hearing and vision 384 Loving loving 391 15 Legitimacy 401 The professor 401 The Collège de France 409 Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes 413 The colloque de Cerisy 425 16 Barthes and Foucault 430 Parallel lives 431 An accompaniment 435 Two styles 437 17 Heartbreak 445 1977 445 Love 447 Death 458 The Mourning Diary 460 18 'Vita Nova' 470 15 April 1978 470 New life? 479 Clarity 484 The end 489 Notes 499 Image credits 565 Index 567.