{"product_id":"books-the-seventh-function-of-language-by-laurent-binet","title":"The Seventh Function of Language","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the prizewinning author of \u003ci\u003eHHhH\u003c\/i\u003e, \"the most insolent novel of the year\" (\u003ci\u003eL'Express\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e) comes a romp through the French intelligentsia of the twentieth century.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Paris, 1980. The literary critic Roland Barthes dies--struck by a laundry van--after lunch with the presidential candidate François Mitterand. The world of letters mourns a tragic accident. But what if it wasn't an accident at all? What if Barthes was . . . murdered?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eThe Seventh Function of Language\u003c\/i\u003e, Laurent Binet spins a madcap secret history of the French intelligentsia, starring such luminaries as Jacques Derrida, Umberto Eco, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Julia Kristeva--as well as the hapless police detective Jacques Bayard, whose new case will plunge him into the depths of literary theory (starting with the French version of \u003ci\u003eRoland Barthes for Dummies\u003c\/i\u003e). Soon Bayard finds himself in search of a lost manuscript by the linguist Roman Jakobson on the mysterious \"seventh function of language.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A brilliantly erudite comedy, \u003ci\u003eThe Seventh Function of Language\u003c\/i\u003e takes us from the cafés of Saint-Germain to the corridors of Cornell University, and into the duels and orgies of the Logos Club, a secret philosophical society that dates to the Roman Empire. Binet has written both a send-up and a wildly exuberant celebration of the French intellectual tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World of Books ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53674269311249,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781250181688.jpg?v=1781530398","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/books-the-seventh-function-of-language-by-laurent-binet","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}