Mythologies (book)

Cover of the first edition

Author
Original title
Translator
Country
Language
Subject
Publisher
Publication date
Published in English
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ISBN
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Roland Barthes
Mythologies
Annette Lavers
France
French
Semiotics, Structuralism
Les Lettres nouvelles
1957
1972
Print (Softcover)
0-374-52150-6
28565754

Mythologies is a 1957 book by Roland Barthes. It is a collection of essays taken from Les Lettres
nouvelles, examining the tendency of contemporary social value systems to create modern
myths. Barthes also looks at the semiology of the process of myth creation, updating Ferdinand
de Saussure's system of sign analysis by adding a second level where signs are elevated to the
level of myth.

Format
Mythologies is split into two: Mythologies and Myth Today, the first section consisting of a
collection of essays on selected modern myths and the second further and general analysis of the
concept.

Mythologies
The first section of Mythologies describes a selection of modern cultural phenomena, chosen for
their status as modern myths and for the added meaning that has been conferred upon them. Each
short chapter analyses one such myth, ranging from Einstein's Brain to Soap Powders and
Detergents. They were originally written as a series of bi-monthly essays for the magazine Les
Lettres Nouvelles.
In a typical example: Barthes describes the image that has been built up around Red Wine and
how it has been adopted as a French national drink, how it is seen as a social equaliser and the
drink of the proletariat, partly because it is seen as blood-like (as in Holy Communion) and
points out that very little attention is paid to red wine's harmful effects to health, but that it is
instead viewed as life-giving and refreshing- 'in cold weather, it is associated with all the myths
of becoming warm, and at the height of summer, with all the images of shade, with all things
cool and sparkling.'[1]
In another chapter, Barthes explores the myth of professional wrestling. He describes how, unlike
in boxing, the aim of the sport is not to discover who will win or 'a demonstration of excellence',
[2]
it is a staged spectacle acting out society's basic concepts of Good and Evil, of 'Suffering,
Defeat and Justice'.[3] The wrestlers, like characters in a pantomime, portray grossly exaggerated
stereotypes of human weakness: the traitor, the conceited one, the 'effeminate teddy-boy'. The
audience expects to watch them suffer and be punished for their own transgressions of
wrestling's rules in a theatrical version of Society's ideology of justice.

Essays in the first (partial) English translation of Mythologies

"The World of Wrestling" (professional wrestling)

"The Romans in Films" (the 1953 American film Julius Caesar)

"The Writer on Holiday" (an article in Le Figaro about Andr Gide's travels in the
Congo)

"The 'Blue Blood' Cruise" (a yacht cruise taken by European royalty to celebrate the
coronation of Queen Elizabeth II)

"Blind and Dumb Criticism"

"Soap-powders and Detergents" (advertisements for Omo and Persil detergents)

"The Poor and the Proletariat" (Charlie Chaplin)

"Operation Margarine" (From Here to Eternity; the Jules Roy play Les Cyclones; Graham
Greene's The Living Room; advertisements for Astra brand margarine)

"Dominici, or the Triumph of Literature" (the Dominici Affair)

"The Iconography of the Abb Pierre"

"Novels and Children" (Elle magazine on women novelists)

"Toys"

"The Face of Garbo" (Greta Garbo in Queen Christina)

"Wine and Milk"

"Steak and Chips"

"The Nautilus and the Drunken Boat" (the novels of Jules Verne)

"The Brain of Einstein"

"The Jet-man"

"The Blue Guide"

"Ornamental Cookery" (food photography in Elle magazine)

"Neither-Nor Criticism"

"Striptease"

"The New Citron" (the Citron DS 19)

"Photography and Electoral Appeal" (photographs of French politicians)

"The Lost Continent"

"Plastic"

"The Great Family of Man" (the touring photography exhibition known in Englishspeaking countries as The Family of Man)

"The Lady of the Camellias"

Myth today
In the second half of the book Barthes addresses the question of "What is a myth, today?" with
the analysis of ideas such as: myth as a type of speech, and myth on the wings of politics.

The front cover of the Paris Match magazine that Barthes analyzes.
Following on from the first section, Barthes justifies and explains his choices and analysis. He
calls upon the concepts of semiology developed by Ferdinand de Saussure at the turn of the
century. Saussure described the connections between an object (the signified) and its linguistic
representation (such as a word, the signifier) and how the two are connected. For example, the
object and properties of 'a walnut tree' are joined by the sounds or letters that signify 'walnut tree'
to give us the sign for 'walnut tree', a set of sounds and written letters that, although they are only
arbitrarily connected to a walnut tree, come to mean the 'walnut tree' to us.
Working with this structure Barthes continues to show his idea of a myth as a further sign, with
its roots in language, but to which something has been added. So with a word (or other linguistic
unit) the meaning (apprehended content) and the sound come together to make a sign. To make a
myth, the sign itself is used as a signifier, and a new meaning is added, which is the signified.
But according to Barthes- this is not added arbitrarily. Although we are not necessarily aware of
it, modern myths are created with a reason. As in the example of the red wine, mythologies are
formed to perpetuate an idea of society that adheres to the current ideologies of the ruling class
and its media.

Barthes demonstrates this theory with the example of a front cover from Paris Match, showing a
young black soldier in French uniform saluting. The signifier: a saluting soldier, cannot offer us
further factual information of the young man's life. But it has been chosen by the magazine to
symbolise more than the young man; the picture, in combination with the signifieds of
Frenchness, militariness, and relative ethnic difference, gives us a message about France and its
citizens. The picture does not explicitly demonstrate 'that France is a great empire, that all her
sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag,' etc., [4] but the
combination of the signifier and signified perpetuates the myth of imperial devotion, success and
thus; a property of 'significance' for the picture.
I am at the barbers, and copy of Paris-Match is offered to me. On the cover, a young Negro in a
French uniform is saluting, with his eyes uplifted, probably fixed on a fold of the tricolour. All
this is the meaning of the picture. But whether naively or not, I see very well what it signifies to
me : that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully
serve under the flag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism
than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called oppressors ...

Mythologisation and cultural studies

In writing about the process of mythologisation, Barthes refers to the tendency of socially
constructed notions, narratives, and assumptions to become "naturalised" in the process, that is,
taken unquestioningly as given within a particular culture. Barthes finishes Mythologies by
looking at how and why mythologies are built up by the bourgeoisie in its various
manifestations. He returns to this theme in later works including The Fashion System.