Louis Marin was a French philosopher, historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, semiotician and art critic

Critic

A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...

 of the 20th century.

He was born in La Tronche

La Tronche

La Tronche is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Isère department...

, He is usually referred to as a French Post-Structuralism thinker. He attended the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, Sorbonne

Sorbonne

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...

 and graduated with a Licence in Philosophy in 1952. His degree was followed in 1953 with an Agrégé in Philosophy and with a Docteur d'Etat in 1973.
Marin taught at the University of Nanterre, Paris from 1967 to 1970, the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, San Diego from 1970 to 1974, Johns Hopkins University from 1974 to 1977, and finally at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris from 1977 to 1992. He was also an Associate of the Humanities Center at Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 from 1985 until his death in 1992 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.
Marin was widely known for his work in a variety of areas: linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, semiotics

Semiotics

Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...

, theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

, philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

, anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

, rhetoric

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...

, art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 and institutional history and literary theory

Literary theory

Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...

. Throughout his career, Marin's main intellectual focus was seventeenth-century French literature, particularly the works of Pascal

Pascal

Pascal or PASCAL may refer to:-People:* Pascal , a French given name* Pascal , a French and Italian surname* Adam Pascal , American actor and singer, best known for his role of Roger Davis in the Broadway musical Rent* Blaise Pascal , French mathematician and philosopher* Cleo Paskal, environmental...

, Perrault

Perrault

Perrault may refer to:*Perrault , a British-bred Thoroughbred racehorse*Charles Perrault, French writer*Claude Perrault , French architect and scientist, brother of Charles...

, Poussin

Poussin

Poussin refers to:*Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian mathematician*Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian geologist and mineralogist, father of Charles Jean*Nicolas Poussin , French painter...

 and Philippe de Champaigne

Philippe de Champaigne

Philippe de Champaigne was a Flemish-born French Baroque era painter, a major exponent of the French school.-Early life:Born in Brussels of a poor family, Champaigne was a pupil of the landscape painter Jacques Fouquières...

. In addition, he published numerous articles on the visual arts and religious texts.

Education

• 1950 Admission to the Ecole Normale Superieure 2
• 1952 Degree in philosophy at the Sorbonne
• 1953 Aggregation of Philosophy
• 1973 Doctorate of State

Life

• 1961–1964 Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy of France in Turkey
• 1964–1967 Director of the French Institute in London
• 1967–1970 Professor at the University of Paris-Nanterre and the EBU of Plastic Arts of Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne
• 1970–1974 University of San Diego, California
• 1974–1977 Professor of French Literature at the Johns Hopkins University
• 1978 Director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
• 1987 Director of the Centre for the Arts and language EHESS-CNRS

Works

Morin has written on the following topics:

• Classicism and modernity
• Signs of power, authority signs
• Semiology of painting
• Autobiography

Louis Marin has a lesser reputation than some of his contemporaries and friends, as Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard and Michel de Certeau, this status is less likely that the effect of the works of Louis Marin works of philosophy appear less comments that literary and philosophical texts, and they relate to methods and fields very different. Still, his classes and his work has exercised and continues to exert a profound influence on some historians (Christian Jouhaud), art historians (Daniel Arasse), and literary historians (Hélène Merlin-Caiman).