About this title: In MYTHOLOGIES, Roland Barthes's most popular work, he examines common signs or "myths," and how they mask larger meanings and realities within French society. The collection contains a number of short pieces on popular culture, politics, film, and more, written for the leftist Les Lettres Nouvelles in the mid-1950s; the content epitomizes classic ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1993
ISBN-13:9780099972204ISBN:0099972204
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Description: Very Good. 058608164X. Clean, tightly bound paperback, spine uncreased, card covers rubbed at corners, pages age-toned but generally appears little used, no inscriptions. 160 pages. read more
Description: Good. Light shelving wear with minimal damage to cover and bindings. Pages show minor use. Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read. Recycle and Reuse! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: VINTAGE Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780099529750ISBN:0099529750
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 208 pages. A collection of essays that explores the myths of mass culture. it deciphers the symbols and signs embedded deep in familiar aspects of modern life, unmasking the hidden ideologies and meanings which implicitly affect our thought and behaviour. (Paperback) read more
Description: Acceptable. Library glue residue and/or library stamp on inside pastedown and/or fore leaf. Library tape residue on the front and back pastedowns. Readable copy. Noticeable wear to cover, pages, and binding (binding intact). Pages can include considerable notes, highlights, and/or underlining which do not obscure text. Some yellowing and/or separation of pages is common. Dust cover may be missing. " read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Date Published: 1972
ISBN-13:9780374521509ISBN:0374521506
Description: Good. NOTATIONS THROUGHOUT BOOK, SLIGHT TO MODERATE HIGHLIGHTING AND OR UNDERLINING THROUGHOUT BOOK, Clean, nice condition, good reading copy. read more
Description: Good. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"Had to read it for Critical Theory class. Although it was a bit of a jolt to get into the "theory" mindset I found many of the concepts enlightening. I particularly liked the Wrestling essay and its illumination of the "myth of intelligible speech"/"myth of the intelligibility of the moral world".
And this was a memorable quote:
Myth hides nothing and flaunts nothing: it distorts; myth is neither a lie nor a confession: it is an inflexion."
"I can't believe that I haven't read this in its entirety before!
One of my favorite essays in this collection is the one on "Novels and Children." Barthes muses on how the weekly magazine Elle introduces a female writer as "a remarkable zoological species," as "she brings forth, pell-mell, novels and children." Women writers in this magazine are not only describes as such, but their identity must always be twofold (as they can never forget their domestic roles). By deconstructing this myth of traditional womanhood, Barthes asks (and answers):
"What does it mean? This: to write is glorious but bold activity; the writer is an 'artist,' one recognizes he is entitled to bohemianism. As he is in general entrusted--at least in the France of Elle--with giving society reasons for its clear conscience, he must, after all, be paid for his services: one tacitly grants him the right to some individuality. But make no mistake: let no woman believe that they can take advantage of this pact without having first submitted to the eternal statue of womanhood. Women are on earth to give children to men; let them write as much as they like, let them decorate their condition, but above all, let them not depart from it: let their Biblical fate not be disturbed by the promotion that is conceded to them, and let them pay immediately by the tribute of their motherhood, for this bohemianism which has a natural link with a writer's life.
Women, be therefore courageous, free; play at being men, write like them; but never get far from them; live under their gaze, compensate for your books by your children; enjoy a free rein for a while, but quickly come back to your condition. One novel, one child, a little feminism, a little connubiality. Let us tie the adventure of art to the strong pillars of the home: both will profit a great deal from this combination: where myths are concerned, mutual help is always fruitful.""
"A very good work of structuralist theory and a forebear to the emergence of Cultural Studies. Mythologies is one of the few bits of French theory that is accessible, and it's lots of fun in addition to being illuminating. Barthes's essay on wrestling is a staple, and rightly so, but I'd love for him to come back and train his analytical sites on the Hogans. Well, on second thought, maybe it's better that he's not around to see them."
"Very important book. Barthes is one of the Fathers of semiology, "the study of signs." Leaving out the techno jargon, this is the study of how we make meaning and the limits of how we mean. This book is mostly a very easy read on some very everyday subjects and yet the interpretation of what and how these subjects (wrestling, bleach, etc.) "mean" was a revolution in interpretation theory and ultimately had huge impact on literary criticism, philosophy, and many other disciplines. A good start on reading Barthes as some of his writing is either full of technical jargon (and relies on others such as Levi Strauss and Saussure who are also hard reads) or tend to treat accessible, but less common subjects (such as a Balzac short story seldom read by English readers)."
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