Roland Barthes - Mythologies
MYTHOLOGIES
MYTHOLOGIES
Roland Barthes
Selected and translated from the French by ANNETTE LAVERS
Books by Roland Barthes A Barthes Reader Camera Lucida Critical Essays The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies Elements of Semiology The Empire of Signs The Fashion System The Grain of the Voice Image-Music-Text A Lover's Discourse Michelet Mythologies New Critical Essays On Racine The Pleasure of the Text The Responsibility of Forms Roland Barthes The Rustle of Language Sade / Fourier / Loyola The Semiotic Challenge S/Z Writing Degree Zero
THE NOONDAY PRESS - NEW YORK FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX
2
Contents
Translated from the French Mythologies (c) 1957 by Editions du Seuil, Paris Translation (c) 1972 by Jonathan Cape Ltd. All rights reserved Library of Congress catalog card number: 75-185427 Of the essays reproduced in this book, "The World of Wrestling" first appeared in Esprit, "The Writer on Holiday" in FranceObservateur, and the remainder in Les Lettres Nouvelles.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE PREFACE TO THE 1970 EDITION PREFACE TO THE 1957 EDITION MYTHOLOGIES The World of Wrestling The Romans in Films The Writer on Holiday The 'Blue Blood' Cruise Blind and Dumb Criticism Soap-powders and Detergents The Poor and the Proletariat Operation Margarine Dominici, or the Triumph of Literature The Iconography of the Abbé Pierre Novels and Children Toys The Face of Garbo Wine and Milk Steak and Chips The Nautilus and the Drunken Boat The Brain of Einstein The Jet-man The Blue Guide Ornamental Cookery Neither-Nor Criticism Striptease The New Citroën Photography and Electoral Appeal The Lost Continent Plastic The Great Family of Man The Lady of the Camellias MYTH TODAY Myth is a type of speech Myth as a semiological system The form and the concept The signification 7 9 11 15 26 29 32 34 36 39 41 43 47 50 53 56 58 62 65 68 71 74 78 81 84 88 91 94 97 100 103 109 109 111 117 121 4
Manufactured in the United States of America Twenty-fifth printing, 1991
3
Reading and
MYTHOLOGIES
Roland Barthes
Selected and translated from the French by ANNETTE LAVERS
Books by Roland Barthes A Barthes Reader Camera Lucida Critical Essays The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies Elements of Semiology The Empire of Signs The Fashion System The Grain of the Voice Image-Music-Text A Lover's Discourse Michelet Mythologies New Critical Essays On Racine The Pleasure of the Text The Responsibility of Forms Roland Barthes The Rustle of Language Sade / Fourier / Loyola The Semiotic Challenge S/Z Writing Degree Zero
THE NOONDAY PRESS - NEW YORK FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX
2
Contents
Translated from the French Mythologies (c) 1957 by Editions du Seuil, Paris Translation (c) 1972 by Jonathan Cape Ltd. All rights reserved Library of Congress catalog card number: 75-185427 Of the essays reproduced in this book, "The World of Wrestling" first appeared in Esprit, "The Writer on Holiday" in FranceObservateur, and the remainder in Les Lettres Nouvelles.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE PREFACE TO THE 1970 EDITION PREFACE TO THE 1957 EDITION MYTHOLOGIES The World of Wrestling The Romans in Films The Writer on Holiday The 'Blue Blood' Cruise Blind and Dumb Criticism Soap-powders and Detergents The Poor and the Proletariat Operation Margarine Dominici, or the Triumph of Literature The Iconography of the Abbé Pierre Novels and Children Toys The Face of Garbo Wine and Milk Steak and Chips The Nautilus and the Drunken Boat The Brain of Einstein The Jet-man The Blue Guide Ornamental Cookery Neither-Nor Criticism Striptease The New Citroën Photography and Electoral Appeal The Lost Continent Plastic The Great Family of Man The Lady of the Camellias MYTH TODAY Myth is a type of speech Myth as a semiological system The form and the concept The signification 7 9 11 15 26 29 32 34 36 39 41 43 47 50 53 56 58 62 65 68 71 74 78 81 84 88 91 94 97 100 103 109 109 111 117 121 4
Manufactured in the United States of America Twenty-fifth printing, 1991
3
Reading and