From Structuralism To Poststructuralism

Roland Barthes is the great flag bearer and thinker of French literary criticism in the 20 th century who has made remarkable achievements in many theoretical fields,among which body theory can not be ignored.Barthes' body theory presents different characteristics at different stages from structuralism to post-structuralism.Based on Roland Barth's texts,this article expolores the characteristics' changes of his body theory.Roland Barthes' change of body theory is inseparable with the transformation of his symbolic thought.In the period of structuralism,Barthes attached great importance to language and symbols.The body shows the characteristic of standardization because it is the carrier of the "myth" of the secondary symbol system.During the transition period from structuralism to post-structuralism,the symbol system became more open and the body gained a certain degree of autonomy.The body no longer bears the meaning of the symbol,therefore,the body presents the characteristics of writing during this period.In the post-structuralist period,Barthes made the body and the text isomorphic and introduced desire into the text,Writing and reading became the production place of body pleasure,and the body gained the enjoyment in writing and reading so that the body is hedonic in the post-structuralist period.An analysis of Roland Barthes 'body theory is of interest to us in forming a relatively systematic understanding of Roland Barthes view of body,and a clearer grasp of Roland Barth's transformation from structuralism to post-structuralism and Barthes' use of body as an act to counter ideology,as well as the position of Barthes' body theory in the whole development of the Western view of body.