Mythologies: The Complete Edition, in a New Translation (Audiobook)

from sarahlizfits

This book was my introduction to Roland Barthes and semiology, and I can't believe what I've been missing. He examines relatively mundane cultural myths, and it is simply brilliant. His use and examination of language is perfect, and I will reread this book regularly. My favorite essay, by far, w...

from BeeQuiet

Great book, I have to say I felt really sorry for the poor guy when I got to the end, he sounded so sad and...well, alienated, in his conclusion. Bless his little Commie socks. Joking aside, Barthes created here a genuinely accessible explanation of structural linguistics as first written on by S...

from MarkBeronte

"[Mythologies] 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, ...

from axelp

"I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object."

from P_S_Patrick

The first part of Mythologies is a collection of short individual pieces written by Barthes on the semiology - the underlying symbolism and meaning, of a selection of commonplace phenenomena of contemporary society in the 1950s. What Barthes reads into things is frequently amusing and often enlig...