Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions based on the passage:
Post-structuralism emerged in France in the late 1960s. The two figures most closely associated with this emergence are Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida (1930-2004). Barthes's work around this time began to shift in character, moving from a structuralist to a post-structuralist phase. The difference can be seen by comparing two accounts of the nature of the narrative by Barthes, one from each phase: namely, the essay 'The Structural Analysis of Narrative' (first published in 1966) and The Pleasure of the Text (1973). The former is detailed, methodological, and forbiddingly technical, while the latter is really just a series of random comments on narrative, arranged alphabetically, thereby, of course, emphasizing the randomness of the material. Between these two works came the crucial essay 'The Death of the Author' (1968), which is the 'hinge' around which Barthes turns from structuralism to post-structuralism. In that essay, he announces the death of the author, which is a rhetorical way of asserting the independence of the literary text and its immunity to the possibility of being unified or limited by any notion of what the author might have intended, or 'crafted' into the work. Instead, the essay makes a declaration of radical textual independence: the work is not determined by intention or context. Rather, the text is free by its very nature of all such restraints.
What marked Roland Barthes’s shift from structuralism to post-structuralism?
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The Shift: The text explicitly states that Barthes's work began to shift from a structuralist phase to a post-structuralist phase.
The Comparison: It suggests this difference can be seen by comparing two accounts of narrative:
'The Structural Analysis of Narrative' (1966): Described as 'detailed, methodological, and forbiddingly technical.'
The Pleasure of the Text (1973): Described as 'a series of random comments on narrative... emphasizing the randomness of the material.'