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Review
Teacher, man of letters, moralist, philospher of culture, connoisseur of strong ideas, protean autobiographer . . . of all the intellectual notables who have emerged since World War II in France, Roland Barthes is the one whose work I am most certain will endure (Susan Sontag)One of the great public teachers of our time, someone who thought out, argued for, and made available serveral steps in a penetrating reflection on language sign systems, texts --and what they have to tell us about the concept of being human. (Peter Brooks)This new edition brings into English for the first time all of the essays in the groundbreaking Mythologies by French semiotician and critic Barthes, translated by the redoubtable Howard (Flowers of Evil), and joins them with Lavers's earlier translation of Barthes's accompanying analytical essay, "Myth Today." Barthes examined mass culture, its ads and hidden or disguised messages, its icons and politics, its desperate speed in the mid-1950s. With several exceptions, these pensées are in delectable, bite-sized pieces. Though very much of their time, these essays tell us a lot about how we might intellectually navigate our own century. When the specifics are unfamiliar to a non-French reader, unobtrusive and cogent notes identify the individuals and issues. By framing the mythic in the quotidian, Barthes examines everything from detergent ("dirt is a sickly little enemy which flees from good clean linens at the first sign of Omo's judgment") to professional wrestling ("Wrestling is not a sport, it is a spectacle"), Garbo's face ("virtually sexless, without being at all 'dubious'"), Billy Graham, the Tour de France, a French striptease, plastics, and onward. With so much new material now included, this volume is not an unabridged reissue so much as a celebration anew. (Publishers Weekly)An abridged English translation of Mythologies (1957), one of Barthes's most famous books, has been available since 1972, but it omitted 25 of the original essays, included here. Overall, Barthes (1915-80) argues in these diverse pieces, both the newly available and the others, that many customs accepted as a matter of course are in fact narratives that disclose their meaning under close analysis. He considers, among other subjects, professional wrestling, maintaining that each gesture has its place in a story. Likewise, why do astrology columns offer advice on particular subjects (this is one of the newly available essays)? What is the significance of Greta Garbo's face? The book has a political dimension; one of Barthes's principal targets is the petit-bourgeois movement of Pierre Poujade. Many essays concentrate on aspects of French life in the 1950s. Aside from these, the book includes a long theoretical section, still in the original English translation by Annette Lavers, in which Barthes explains his approach to myth, stressing the affinities of myth and language. VERDICT Barthes was one of the major French critics of the 20th century, and this fuller translation will be of interest to English-speaking students of French and comparative literature as well as to cultural anthropologists. (Library Journal)A new edition of landmark work. As this new translation and expansion of a seminal work by the French semiotician and philosopher demonstrates, Barthes remains ahead of his time, and our time, more than 30 years after his death. His impact extends well beyond those who actually read his work (as the pivotal role his ideas hold in the latest Jeffrey Eugenides novel, The Marriage Plot, makes plain). His third book, published in 1957, provides a key to that influence, though early translations included around half or less of the 53 essays here (one of them, "Astrology," receiving its first English translation for American publication). The book has two parts. The first comprises the short essays, translated by Richard Howard, that show the philosopher-critic illuminating the mythic in everyday manifestations of culture ranging from striptease to pro wrestling to red wine to children's toys ("usually toys of imitation, meant to make child users, not creative children"). Where those pieces can occasionally read like journalism (on a very high intellectual level), the second part, "Myth Today," which retains the 1972 translation, provides the philosophical underpinnings of meaning as a social construct and myth as man-made, fluid rather than fixed ("there is no fixity in mythical concepts: they can come into being, alter, disintegrate, disappear completely"). For Barthes, so much of what is accepted as reality is simply perception, shaped and even distorted by the social constructs of language, myth and meaning. Amid the high-powered theorizing, some of his pronouncements require no academic explanation: "If God is really speaking through Dr. [Billy] Graham's mouth, it must be acknowledged that God is quite stupid: the Message stuns us by its platitude, its childishness." It's remarkable that essays written more than a half-century ago, on another continent, should seem not merely pertinent but prescient in regard to the course of contemporary American culture. (Kirkus Reviews)
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About the Author
Roland Barthes was born in 1915 and studied French literature and the classics at the University of Paris. After teaching French at universities in Romania and Egypt, he joined the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, where he devoted himself to research in sociology and lexicology. He was a professor at the College de France until his death in 1980.
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Product details
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (January 1, 1972)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374521506
ISBN-13: 978-0374521509
Product Dimensions:
5.4 x 0.4 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.7 out of 5 stars
75 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#84,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The substance of this book deserves 5 stars or a bit more; my review and star-rating are specifically about the 2015 complete edition translated by Richard Howard and Annette Lavers (H&L).I first read this book in French more than 35 years ago, in my 20s. My French wasn't so good, and my progress was slow, but the book nonetheless struck me as funny and wonderfully off-kilter. The prose style was playful, but also clear. It didn't hurt that the historical era Barthes was talking about wasn't so far removed from my own awareness (I was born during the period when the articles were written). His way of looking at everything precisely, but from an unorthodox perspective and with a sense of ironic humor, had a deep influence on my own writing when I started writing a magazine column a few decades later. More recently, it's also influenced my teaching.I came to this translation thinking of assigning some essays as reading for college students in a business program. It didn't take long to ditch that idea: this translation would make it too tough for most of them to share my enthusiasm. The historical distance of the subject matter wasn't the problem -- some annotations and illustrations could help with that. In fact, one of the benefits of this edition is a small insert of illustrations to help the 21st Century reader visualize what Barthes was writing about. Many essays also have a short introductory footnote on their first page, providing historical context. The real problem is with the tone of the translation -- it makes Barthes sound insufferably pretentious and fussy. If you've ever been to a university party where some middle-aged professor is getting carried away with the sound of his own voice, it's a bit like that. If I'd begun with this version instead of the original, I'm sure I'd have gotten impatient with it about a third of the way through.Given how shaky my French was when I read the book the first time, I wondered whether maybe this translation captured the essence of Barthes, to which I'd been insensitive earlier. I've read a lot more French since then, including some dull and pretentious stuff. But when I checked now, Barthes still isn't that. Despite occasional flourishes (but precise ones), his vocabulary is mostly pretty clear -- which is how I managed to make it all the way through so many years ago. His sentences are long and full of clauses, but they have a rhythm lacking here.One particular issue I noticed from a random comparison is that the translators often distort the syntax that gave structure and poise to the French original. Here is an example from one of the more political essays, "The Cruise of the 'Batory'," contrasting the magazine Le Figaro's coverage of a 1955 French cruise taking tourists to visit the USSR with that of the refusal of some French soldiers to fight in Algeria. According to the magazine, the cruise had given the Russians a glimpse of a sort of cheerful anarchy and individualism among the disorderly French. Barthes's original essay ends as follows:« Lorsque quatre cents rappelés de l’armée de l’Air ont refusé, un dimanche, de partir pour l’Afrique de Nord, _Le Figaro_ n’ a plus parlé d’anarchie sympathique et d’individualisme enviable : comme il ne s’agissait plus ici de musée ou de métro, mais bien de gros sous coloniaux, le “désordre†n’était plus, tout d’un coup, le fait d’une glorieuse vertu gauloise, mais le produit artificiel de quelques “meneurs†; ile n’était plus prestigieux mais _lamentable_, et la _monumentale indiscipline_ des Français, louée tout a l’heure de clins d’oeil loustics et vaniteux, est devenue sur la route d’Algerie, trahison honteuse. _Le Figaro_ connait bien sa bourgeoisie: la liberté en vitrine, à titre décoratif, mais l’Ordre chex soi, à titre constitutif. »Here is the translation in this edition:“When four hundred Air Force veterans, called up for North African service, refused to serve one Sunday, _Le Figaro_ no longer spoke of the sympathetic anarchy and enviable individualism of the French: no longer any question here of museum or metro, but rather of colonial investments and big money; whereupon ‘disorder’ was no longer the phenomenon of a glorious Gallic virtue but the artificial product of a few ‘agents’; it was no longer glamorous but _lamentable_ and the _monumental lack of discipline_ of the French, formerly praised with so many waggish and self-satisfied winks, has become, on the road to Algeria, a shameful treason. _Le Figaro_ knows its bourgeoisie: freedom out front, on display, but Order back home, a constitutive necessity.†(@148)A few observations about this translation:(a) In the first sentence of the passage Barthes strings together three sentences into one - but each clause is a complete sentence. One translation strategy might have been to punctuate the passage differently as two or three distinct sentences. Instead H&L retain the one-sentence structure but make the flow choppier by subdividing into into four chained clauses, including two sentence fragments (“no longer any question here …†and “whereupon…â€). In doing so, they also make it hard for the reader to see the causal relationship between the topics of those two fragments. Compare a translation of Barthes’s middle clause roughly as follows: “as it was no longer a matter of museum or metro, but of big colonial bucks, ‘disorder’ suddenly wasn’t the result of a glorious Gallic virtue but the manufactured product of a few ‘agents’â€.(b) H&L insert formal and lengthy words where they weren’t present in the original: e.g., “whereupon†rather than “suddenly†for ‘tout a l’heure,’ “a constitutive necessity†for the adjective ‘constitutif,’ “phenomenon†rather than “result†for ‘fait,’ and “colonial investments and big money†for the intentionally coarse ‘gros sous coloniaux’ (as in “big colonial bucks,†“colonial big money†or something similar).(c) In the last sentence, H&L erase Barthes’s balanced contrast of freedom and order as reflected in the parallel syntax of the concluding clauses. They also downplay his irony by omitting the adverb “bien†(‘well’), and ignoring the bourgeois resonances of “vitrine,†connoting a shop window. Something closer to the sense of Barthes’s last sentence might be: “_Le Figaro_ knows its bourgeoisie well: freedom on display in the shop window, as decoration, but Order at home, as foundation.â€All in all, the translators’ choices make Barthes seem much more pompous and distant from the reader than he really was; and in passages like the one just quoted, they also downplay his political engagement.Many reviewers here on Amazon managed to enjoy this book despite the problems I've described. If you don't read French, don't let my review discourage you from picking up this book. But if you get frustrated with it, please remember that in the original it's a much more elegant, humorous and brilliant read than comes across from this version.
This is a very thoughtful and philosophical book that explores the ways we construct modern myths in today's society. I referenced this book for my Master's thesis and honestly, it made me fall in love with Barthes and his approach to visual semiotics. He demonstrates the way socially constructed ideas can be normalized in the media, elevating them into unquestioned, everyday assumptions we make about the world.While Barthes wrote this book in the 1950s, the messages apply even more today. In our post-truth society, it's easier now more than ever to buy into fake or misleading information; satire and conspiracy can so easily spread virally via social media, even fooling journalists who should be more discerning about the information they share. Reading this books enlightens the reader to processes that continue to take place, helping reveal the need for personal critical thinking skills in a time when false information seems to largely go unchecked and is so easily accepted as true. With Barthes' help, we can challenge culture and the mythologies it tends to create.
The 1990’s American teen in me was more than slightly confused a few essays into Roland Barthes’, Mythologies. I was even more so confused after googling “Elle France,†and finding out my connection was indeed accurate, and that the ‘Elle’ that Barthes continuously refers back to, is indeed the French counterpart to the American Elle magazine. The image of Barthes sitting in study reading a woman’s’ fashion and lifestyle magazine full of articles on “how to dress for your body type,†or “101 ways to please your man,†popped into my head a few times. Chuckles aside, I admit that I had to remind myself that it was 1957 more than a few times. Oddly enough, though Barthes undoubtedly had no idea what the connotation of Elle would become, its current meaning and presence in Mythologies is one that adds to some of the myths. Mythologies as a whole is based on society. There are stories, facts, and metaphors that cross generations, burying themselves as validation as myths. Barthes draws a great deal of his reactions from Elle, and those reactions live in a patriarchal universe. This is not so much a critique of Barthes and his view on society, as it is an observation on society and reality. Thematically men are at the top of society, children strive to grow into men, and women are allowed freedoms, but at the end of the day, their position is to bear children and care for the home. Reminder: It’s 1957.The first essay I read from Mythologies was “Novels and Children.†A feminist would have a field day with this essay (you’ve read it, so you know why). Personally, I wanted to pat the women mentioned in Elle on the back and congratulate them for writing their books while caring for their children, husbands and home. I’m there right now: terrible twos, a colicky newborn, endless laundry, cooking, dishes… and writing and school. Here’s the thing- 1957 or 2016, it doesn’t matter, the struggle for women to balance work and home is still essentially the same. I say essentially because society has changed to where it is not dictated, but for those who believe in the system, we live in the myth. Our husbands provide and we in turn bear children and take care of the home, often becoming superwomen for achieving careers and success as well. There is more equality today, but the bare system is still present. This system moves down to the children as well. In “Toys,†Barthes repeatedly defines his explanation as specifically relating solely to French toys. As I read “Toys†though, I can’t help but look around my living room and connect the dots. My living room has a little tykes grill, kitchen set, trucks, trucks, more trucks, and the plastic version of every tool you can possibly imagine… and blocks. Again, a theme that crosses time. Sixty years and a continent later, home life has not changed that much. We are undoubtedly, as Barthes connects, “creating the future...†“We present our children with miniature objects of adulthood and they take from it, what they will become... and admittedly, I’m rethinking some of my choices in toys now.While some of Barthes myths are relatable across times and nations, not all are. Barthes know this and points it out in “Striptease†and “Wine and Milk.†Some nations have common thought and systems within themselves. The French are different than Americans in not only some of their customs, but also their behavior. Mythologies explores the social power (or restraint or common behavior) that is present in French society. What is powerful is that things that would breakdown an individual in another society has no effect or power over the Frenchmen. A naked woman does not cause men or women in France to blush (so much as the act of stripping down would), just as wine does not cause them to become drunk (in so much as they do not purposefully overdrink). There is restraint in society, the French have control over their actions and the portrayal of themselves. In both myths it is the act of doing something that is meaningful and not the conclusion of that act.The veil in society is broken down in “Ornamental Cookery.†This essay also brings us full circle back to Elle, which still has me seeing Barthes red cheeked (though this essay makes it easier to remember its 1957), “Ornamental Cookery†was a validation of sorts for me. Barthes addresses Elle as a bit lackluster in terms of credible sources, but nevertheless, there is no doubt that the magazine in all of its 1957 glory is a reflection on society. However, the reflection on society is more connotation that denotation. “Ornamental Cookery†in its plainest version is descriptive of food recipes popular in the 1950’s. These recipes often called for dishes to be smothered in sauces, decorated, and glazed in a manner so that one cannot really tell from the surface what is underneath. “Ornamental Cookery†is a metaphorical essay that brings us back once more to the overall discussion on society, where individuals can cover themselves to appear appealing. This phenomenon is yet another idea that crosses time. The idea that people are never truly what they appear to be, and can hide their true identity. Mythologicaly, it reads almost as a warning, as much as it might appear to be advice.I think we are meant to see ourselves in Mythologies. Perhaps not each and every essay is conclusive with a readers life, but I could not help but find similarities with most of the essays that I read. While society will change with time, with location, with governing, the basic structure will remain. That is the mythology of the society.
such a fun book to read. its a little weird at first but as I started to look into the different reasons why he wrote about certain topics it really made me think and have some interesting convos with people.
This is the full edition - often you come across editions that leave out the wonderful and scathing depcition of a Billy Graham crusade in Paris
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Juli 04, 2016
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