Who is Roland Barthes from Travels in Hyper Reality: Essays and what is their importance?

Roland Barthes was the chair of literary semiology at the College de France. According to Eco, he gave his first lecture on January 17,1977 as he accepted the position of chair. The lecture was given the title lecon and is separated into three parts. In the book, Eco focuses on the first part of the lecture having to do with power. Barthes opens by thanking his patron at the college, Michel Foucault, and then proceeds to discuss the particular aspects of power. Chief among them is the fact that power is not singular in nature, it is plural. In addition, power is seen in a transaction in which blame participates. He continues by stating that power is indestructible and that language is the conveyor of power.