âNo denunciation without its proper instrument of close analysis,â Roland Barthes wrote in his preface to Mythologies. There is no more proper instrument of analysis of our contemporary myths than this bookâone of the most significant works in French theory, and one that has transformed the way readers and philosophers view the world around them.
Our age is a triumph of codification. We own devices that bring the world to the command of our fingertips. We have access to boundless information and prodigious quantities of stuff. We decide to like or not, to believe or not, to buy or not. We pick and choose. We think we are free. Yet all around us, in pop culture, politics, mainstream media, and advertising, there are codes and symbols that govern our choices. They are the fabrications of consumer society. They express myths of success, well-being, or happiness. As Barthes sees it, these myths must be carefully deciphered, and debunked.
What Barthes discerned in mass media, the fashion of plastic, and the politics of postcolonial France applies with equal force to todayâs social networks, the iPhone, and the images of 9/11. This new edition of Mythologies, complete and beautifully rendered by the Pulitzer Prizeâwinning poet, critic, and translator Richard Howard, is a consecration of Barthesâs classicâa lesson in clairvoyance that is more relevant now than ever.
The distinguished literary critic and leading exponent of semiology, the science of signs and symbols, seeks to create a mythology of daily life.
Categories:
- Politics & Social Sciences
- Philosophy
- Movements
- Structuralism
- Movements
- Philosophy
Publisher : Hill and Wang
Author : Barthes, Roland
Language : English
Edition : 2
Published :2013-03-12
Number Of Pages : 288
Binding : paperback
ISBN-10 : 0809071940
ISBN-13 : 9780809071944
Item weight : 0.55 lb
Dimensions : 0.9 in x 5.4 in x 8.1 in
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