Roland Barthes, the paradox of exofiction “All this must be considered as said by a character in a novel”

Why and how has Roland Barthes, since his death in 1980, become such a recurrent character in contemporary fiction? The aim of the article is to pierce this paradox in the particular light of two recent narratives, Thomas Clerc's short story "The Man who Killed Roland Barthes", 2010, and Laurent Binet's meta-thriller" The Seventh Function of Language ", 2015. It also critically questions the place of thanatomythography and satire in contemporary literature.