Roland Barthes: Mythologies

Notes from lecture 30 March, 2006. By Anders Fagerjord.

Saussure

Barthes was inspired by the semiology of Ferdinand de Saussure, published in the Course of General Lingustics, a collection of notes by Saussure's students published in 1916. To Saussure, a word is asign, which, like a coin, has two sides, a spoken word, and the thought, the concept it stands for.

Saussure, who spoke French, called the sound pattern signifiant, and the concept signifié. These words have been translated in lots of different ways.

Barthes and the myth

Barthes used the word myth on any depoliticized speech, that is, any way of presenting society as if it is a natural given, and not a result of a certain history and politics that could have been different.

The myth is a secondary signification. A sign -- which could be anything that communicates, word, image, film, whatever -- that already has a literal meaning, is used to stand for an aspect of bourgeois society. The sign becomes part of a new sign.

Barthes famous example is the cover photograph of issue 326 of Paris-Match. The photo is a sign.

1. Its signifier is ink on paper.
2. Its signified is what in your language or experience this corresponds with ("hmm...those ink dots seem to look like a human figure, with dark skin, holding his hand to his temple, wearing a hat...")
3. The sign is the two combined ("aha, it is a young, black French soldier saluting").

But Barthes is no fool, I see very well what it signifies to me: that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism thatn the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called opressors.

This is the second-order signification, and Barthes uses special terms for it:

1. Form: A young negro soldier is saluting in French uniform
2. Concept: France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag.
3. Signification: There is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism thatn the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called opressors.

Some figures of myth

• Inoculation (vaccine: see "Operation Margarine")
• Privation of history (see "Guide Bleu")
• Identification (see "Dominici, or the Triumph of Literature")
• Tautology
• Neither-norism (see "Neither-nor Criticism")
• Quantification of quality (see "The Brain of Einstein")
• Statement of Fact

By figure, Barthes alludes to rhetoric, where a figure is a technique of speech, like metaphor, alliteration, or hyperbole.

See for yourself

The book has no pictures, but Google is your friend. Here are some images I found elsewhere on the Web:

• The Romans in Film
• The Face of Garbo
• The New Citroën