An heir to Homer, this fellow's a French intellectual (7)

I believe the answer is:

barthes

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'a french intellectual' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'an heir to homer this fellow's' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'an' could be 'a' and 'a' is present in the answer.
'fellow's' could be 'hes' ('he' refers to a man) and 'hes' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

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I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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