This book is more than a standard reader or collection; it presents the history of semiotics, to modern revivals in France and Russia and its rapid development since the 1960s. The range and variety of contributions will ensure that the book becomes indispensable for everyone interested in the field. The contributors, many of them writing specially for this book, include Roland Barthes, Michel de Cereau, Jacques Derrida, Edmundo Desnoes, Umberto Eco, Michel Foucault, Jean Franco, Jan Kott, Julia Kristeva,Jacques Lacan, Susan Meiselas and Ronald Weintraub.