Mythologies"[Mythologies] illustrates the beautiful generosity of Barthes's progressive interest in the meaning (his word is signification) of practically everything around him, not only the books and paintings of high art, but also the slogans, trivia, toys, food, and popular rituals (cruises, striptease, eating, wrestling matches) of contemporary life ... For Barthes, words and objects have in common the organized capacity to say something; at the same time, since they are signs, words and objects have the bad faith always to appear natural to their consumer, as if what they say is eternal, true, necessary, instead of arbitrary, made, contingent. Mythologies finds Barthes revealing the fashioned systems of ideas that make it possible, for example, for 'Einstein's brain' to stand for, be the myth of, 'a genius so lacking in magic that one speaks about his thought as a functional labor analogous to the mechanical making of sausages.' Each of the little essays in this book wrenches a definition out of a common but constructed object, making the object speak its hidden, but ever-so-present, reservoir of manufactured sense."--Edward W. SaidThe distinguished literary critic and leading exponent of semiology, the science of signs and symbols, seeks to create a mythology of daily life. |
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Page 31
... existence of beings . vast enough to wear blue pyjamas at the very moment when they manifest themselves as universal conscience , or else make a profession of liking reblochon with that same voice with which they announce their ...
... existence of beings . vast enough to wear blue pyjamas at the very moment when they manifest themselves as universal conscience , or else make a profession of liking reblochon with that same voice with which they announce their ...
Page 74
... existence , we rarely find plains ( redeemed only when they can be described as fertile ) , never plateaux . Only mountains , gorges , defiles and torrents can have access to the pantheon of travel , inasmuch , probably , as they seem ...
... existence , we rarely find plains ( redeemed only when they can be described as fertile ) , never plateaux . Only mountains , gorges , defiles and torrents can have access to the pantheon of travel , inasmuch , probably , as they seem ...
Page 98
... existence : for the first time , artifice aims at something common , not rare . And as an immediate consequence , the age - old function of nature is modified : it is no longer the Idea , the pure Substance to be regained or imitated ...
... existence : for the first time , artifice aims at something common , not rare . And as an immediate consequence , the age - old function of nature is modified : it is no longer the Idea , the pure Substance to be regained or imitated ...
Contents
TRANSLATORS NOTE 794 | 7 |
The Romans in Films | 26 |
The Poor and the Proletariat | 39 |
Copyright | |
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Abbé Pierre alibi ambiguity appears Basque become behaviour Blue Guide bourgeois ideology bourgeois myth bourgeoisie Bouvard and Pécuchet character Citroën concept constituted contradiction contrary criticism culture defined depoliticized discourse Dominici Einstein essence essential eternal everything example existence exorcize face fact film formal French imperiality function gestures gives glacé fruit human idea inasmuch innocent instance intellectual intention jet-man judo Jules Verne kind L'Express language language-object Le Figaro linguistic Literature longer magical margarine Marguerite matter meaning metalanguage Minou Drouet Molière morality motivation mythical speech mythologist mythology name is lion nature Negro Neither-Nor never object obvious once one's Paris-Match passion petit-bourgeois photograph plastic political postulates precisely produce proletarian pure reality reblochon representation Roland Barthes salute semiological system signifier social society speak spectacle Stalin steak striptease style substance Tautology term theatre things tion toys transform true understand Verne whole wine woman word wrestler wrestling writer