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Mythologies: Essais (French Edition)

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In Mythologies, Barthes offers a series of snapshots with titles such as "Plastic," "Striptease," "Toys," "The World of Wrestling," and "Operation Margarine." His aim is to reveal the ideological abuse hidden in these myths, which are manufactured to read as reality.

Though complex, Barthes essays are accessible, charming, and funny. I have taught Mythologies to first-year college students, because it does not require its reader to have read volumes of theory to engage in Barthes' clever reflections.

My favorite essay might be "Toys," which demystifies modern (1954-56) French toys as designed to produce consumers ("users") rather than creators. "Toys" exemplifies how, 50 years later, Barthes' myths are still alive and worth reading.

As scholars of folklore and mythology were looking at their own past as well as currently to explore the narratives of the past and of "primative" peoples, Roland Barthes was looking at the world around him in France in the 1950s to the early 1970s. Why are human beings drawn to folktales, fairy tales, mythic figures? Barthes discovers that this draw surrounds us everyday, used both commerically and unconsciously from the personas of professional wrestlers (who resemble those seen on American television today) to our discussions of public figures. Mythology, Barthes argues, is a vital and living part of our society but it is also one used without real understanding because it is so deeply ingrained in the human mind and heart. The essays are light so that the non-specialist can enjoy but deep enough that the scholar can see and understand the theory underneath.

When I finished this latest re-read of Mythologies I was initially struck by how funny it was. This was something of a big realization for me, stemming from a memory of burning brain cells with a furrowed brow, trying to understand what he was saying and being almost afraid to enjoy it. So there's one of the consolations for growing older for you-- I'm getting confident enough to really enjoy Barthes.

I'm not saying that I fully understand him yet. I'm not sure that I ever will. I think that "Myth Today"(the book's final and most central essay) still remains fairly firmly out of reach. But it's true that each time I re-read Barthes, I get something more out of it-- I manage to scale heights that I didn't think I would ever get to the last time around.

Isn't it the mark of a brilliant book that it grows with you?

Particularly recommended this time are the essays "Soap Powders and Detergents" and "Operation Margarine".

I'm French, and I read it in French. This book is an absolute must for any who wants to understand our Society. Although it's been written 45 years ago, it's more than ever actual, just like if that guy, as a clairvoyant, had been able to decode our present society (and all its incredible deviante face )half a century before. I must say I'll never see the world and medias like before again. More than a book, this is an enthralling weapon against mass passivity.

I was assigned this text as the final leg of a Greek and Roman Mythology course. Having no idea what to expect, I easily read through the collection of short essays and was thoroughly entertained. Even in translation, Barthes is graceful, lighthearted, and humorous in telling of the modern myths surrounding him in 1950s France. A very well-educated philologist, lexicologist, and sociologist, it wasn't until after writing the short essays here compiled that he rigorously developed his semiological/structuralist theories. Those with knowledge of structural linguistics and semiology and those without such a background alike will certainly enjoy every essay of this brief collection.

Furthermore, the longer essay, "Myth Today," which follows the shorter essays published originally in the 50s is replete with extremely interesting, albeit dense, critical theory. While someone with little knowledge of structural linguistics or semiology will have some difficulty with this final essay, it is certainly worth the struggle.

This thin book is a collection of Roland Barthes' short pieces on culture. The style of much of the book is journalistic and easy-to-read.

In this book, Barthes tries to uncover the mythmaking latent in advertising, films, media articles, exhibitions etc. The selection spawns across diverse subjects to explain why and how Romans are defined as Romans in films (with a fringe cut as a standardized technique), mythmaking inherent in celebration of the mystique of Greta Garbo's face, the use of language to dominate and condemn the illiterate, the rhetoric of advertising margaraine, the meaning and rhetoric of plastic, striptease and wrestling as spectacles etc.

At the end of the book, Barthes explains his concept and theory of myth as a sign that has become a signifier for another signified. This portion is of special relevance to those wanting to be initiated into semiology.

I agree with everything that "ladjoolasse@yahoo.com" said, except when he said "I'm French", because I'm not. However I read this book in French, several times over. It's amazing that commentary so attached to 1950's icons has remained so relevant; obviously the structures haven't changed much. This book permanently affected the way I see things, particularly in the media. It should be required reading for all media consumers, and that's pretty much everyone.

At the same time, "Mythologies" offers an object lesson in the bond between language and culture. Much of Barthes' appeal lies in his tongue-in-cheek linguistic play, and that's something no translator could capture completely. This book alone is a good enough reason to learn French.

No one who can read French should read Barthes in English but if you must read him in translation avoid this one. Trying to follow his thought in this version is nearly impossible. Although I managed to finish this short book and glean from it the general intention, it was not worth the time it took to untangle the mangled sentences. Simple words were changed into incomprehensible ones. Admittedly, the author's wish to imitate his satirized material may account for the difficulties of translation but that would account for only a small element. This book should be replaced with a new translation.

What Italo Calvino gives us in 'Cosmicomics' and Umberto Eco provided in 'Misreadings', Barthes gives us more reflections on ourselves and modern society.
Analysis of modern games to advertisements, he depicts portions of personal interaction and methods for dealing with the intelectual side of current systems of thought

I was an Arther Anderson Drop-Out Accountant going to Architecture school. I fell in love with a Radical Feminist Marxist Critic and Theorist. I asked "Where do I start?" She said nothing, pulled Mythologies off her shelf and gave it to me. Forward it led to Foucault and Derrida, Backward to Marx, Hegel, Locke and Hobbes.

It politely said "The Powerful Make Forms - The Forms Have Meaning - What Do They Make? Why Do They Make It? How Do They Make It?"

and architecture stopped being about 2x4's

Still my favorite is The New Citroen......