Roland Barthes
Myth Today & Mythologies
Roland Barthes
1915-1918
Writing Degree Zero
1953
Mythologies 1957
Camera Lucida 1980
The production of
myth
signifier
signified
sign
signified
signifier
sign
salute
patriotism
denotative sign
mythic form
mythic
concept
connotative sign - myth of French
empire
blackness
crime
“denotation”
mythic concept
mythic form
ture.
pressor are needed to see this pic
Q uickTim e™ and a C in epak decom
myth: liberals are soft on crime
mythic form
mythic concept
“denotation”
blackness
crime
Mythical rhetoric
Barthes understands bourgeois myths to conform
generally to seven key figures
These figures can be used as heuristics to
interrogate cultural artifacts
Myth on the “right”: rhetorical figures
typical of bourgeois ideology
Neither/Norism: “Liberals or Conservatives: what’s the
difference?”; the lose-lose proposition--leads to political
cynicism
The quantification of quality: the market determines all
value
The statement of fact: common sense; truisms;
things are no more complex than they seem
“Caesar fringe” on
Marlon Brando
“...it is both
reprehensible and
deceitful to confuse the
sign with what is
signified.”
see “The Romans in
Film”
“The accidental failure of language is magically identified with what one decides is
a natural resistance of the object” (166).
Tautology: “because I said so”; “boys will be boys”; “I know it when I
see it”; “just do it”
Identification: otherness must be reduced to
sameness
The Family of Man Exhibit
Museum of Modern Art 1955
There is only one man in the world
and his name is All Men.
There is only one woman in the world
and her name is All Women.
There is only one child in the world
and the child's name is All Children.
--Carl Sandburg at the
entryway to the exhibit
“...admitting the accidental evil of a class-bound institution the
better to conceal its principle evil” (164)
The inoculation: “True freedom includes the freedom
to fail.”
The privation of history: we know of no time when things were
not as they are now
“All one has to do is possess these beautiful new objects from which all soiling trace of
origin or choice has been removed” (165).
Markers, Metasigns, and Styles
Markedness is opposed to unmarkedness.
It means that a given form is distinguishable from
another on the basis of a special semiotic
feature.
A marked form, in other words, is simply one that
stands out from the rest.
Unmarked forms tend to be transparent--that is,
you don’t notice them; they seem natural.
Unmarked forms are the “default” position.
Broad sets of markers that identify the same social group are
called “metasigns.” They are frequently empty of referential
content; they are used to create solidarity among those so
marked and distance from those who aren’t. (“Style,” “accent,”
and “grammar” all refer to the same phenomenon.)