false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170382203m/51715.jpg 51715 17 <div>"[<i>Mythologies</i>] illustrates the beautiful generosity of Barthes's progressive interest in the meaning (his word is signification) of practically everything around him, not only the books and paintings of high art, but also the slogans, trivia, toys, food, and popular rituals (cruises, striptease, eating, wrestling matches) of contemporary life . . . For Barthes, words and objects have in common the organized capacity to say something; at the same time, since they are signs, words and objects have the bad faith always to appear natural to their consumer, as if what they say is eternal, true, necessary, instead of arbitrary, made, contingent. <i>Mythologies</i> finds Barthes revealing the fashioned systems of ideas that make it possible, for example, for 'Einstein's brain' to stand for, be the myth of, 'a genius so lacking in magic that one speaks about his thought as a functional labor analogous to the mechanical making of sausages.' Each of the little essays in this book wrenches a definition out of a common but constructed object, making the object speak its hidden, but ever-so-present, reservoir of manufactured sense."--Edward W. Said <br></div> 882883 1957 Mythologies total:1259|5:497|4:484|3:235|2:31|1:12| 1259 5200 1874 100 5 3 false false Sun Oct 21 23:27:54 -0700 2007 Sat May 31 01:58:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Jul 01 08:31:45 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 19:44:11 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 01 08:31:45 -0700 2008 Mythologies (1957) was recommended to me as a must-read for brand builders. Who better (or more fun) to read when boning up on brand strategy and semiotics than Roland Barthes? Each of Barthes’s very brief and highly entertaining essays demonstrates his point of view and method as a mythologist-...more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 21 19:01:57 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 26 12:38:11 -0700 2008 Mythologies for my Critical Theory class, but I was so engrossed that I set aside George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones (you'll understand how impressive that is if I ever get to that review) and spent a day of my spring break reading the whole thing. In My...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat May 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 27 15:04:06 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 11 12:29:00 -0700 2008 although it didn't end up going where i thought it would...
barthes envisions the process of myth as a pernicious tool of the dominant power structure for the covert distortion of history...
his analysis centers on the notion that myth is used in the modern world t...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 26 23:12:27 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 26 23:19:38 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Apr 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 19:24:09 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 20:04:58 -0700 2009
Part of Barthes' motivation with writing the book is that he saw history routinely presented as nature in media and mass communicat...more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Nov 21 07:05:20 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 29 07:30:16 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Aug 09 10:16:51 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 09 10:20:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 01:07:33 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 08 14:48:41 -0700 2009 What I mean is that I cannot countenance the traditional belief which postulates a natural dichotomy between the objectivity of the scientist and the subjectivity of the writer, as if the former were endowed with a ‘freedom’ and the latter with a ‘vocation’ equally suitable for spiriting awa...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1980 Thu Dec 11 14:34:59 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 14:45:41 -0800 2008 Twice more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Jun 11 13:47:29 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 22 19:55:13 -0700 2007
He basically invents cultural studies in this book.]]> 5 1 false false Fri May 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun May 04 10:03:56 -0700 2008 Sun May 04 10:04:44 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Thu Sep 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 06:32:15 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 14:53:55 -0700 2009
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 "s...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 02 14:17:42 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 05 14:12:44 -0700 2008
I do, though, because it's terribly important. It is an important book in and of itself, and it's important to me.

I love and teach mythology -- Greek, for the most part. And, in this (n...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 01 19:14:12 -0700 2008 Thu May 01 19:14:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 18:10:00 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 12 15:04:55 -0700 2007
Novels and Children: talks about the presentation of female authors in Elle magazine in the 1950’s. “Women be therefore courageous, free; play at being men, write like them; but never get far...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 12 14:13:50 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 14:16:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 11:07:18 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 11:07:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 01 13:57:46 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 13:57:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jul 28 18:36:12 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 10:01:25 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 18:36:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=51715