Mahmut
Deniz
16 January 2011
Roland
Barthes Mythologies
Roland Barthes's Mythologies consist
of two sections. The first one is about the collection of essays on some modern
myths and the second section is about the analysis of the concept of the book Mythologies which is called "Myth
Today". What Barthes means with the
term "myth" is actually the way how culture signifies and gives
meaning to the world around it, besides it is, as Barthes points out "a
type of speech" (Barthes 107) and "a system of communication, that's
a message" (Barthes 107). According to Barthes, "everything can be a
myth provided it is conveyed by a discourse"(Barthes 107). That is, the
myths are not restricted to text for Barthes, so anything visual or musical can
be myth as well. Furthermore, "myth
is a form of signification, a type of speech in which meaning is
communicated."(Kincheloe 108).
Barthes follows de-Saussure’s discussion regarding
the nature of the
linguistic sign and he characterizes myth as a
second class of signification. For Saussure,
"who
worked on a particular but methodologically exemplary semiological system - the
language or langue - the signified is the concept, the signifier is the
acoustic image (which is mental) and the relation between concept and image is
the sign (the word, for instance), which is a concrete entity." (Barthes
112). While, Barthes brings another dimension to the language of signs and
extends its function to a second level, his method has "a signifier, but
this signifier is itself formed by a sum of signs, it is in itself a first
semiological system" (Barthes 114) However, his second level of
signification, which is conveyed by the "myth", does not simply
copies Saussure's method as " The signifier of myth presents itself in an
ambiguous way: it is at the same time meaning and form " (Barthes 115) To
visualize the phase of signification Barthes gives us a pattern that explains
how his myth is formed:
So, actually the
first level of signification becomes just another "signifier" which
creates the "myth". "In
other words, myth operates by taking previously established sign (which is full of signification)
and 'draining' it until it becomes 'empty' signifier."
(Hawkes 132)
Barthes gives an example of a
magazine cover which portrays an African black boy in uniform saluting the
French flag. Saussure's system of sign which is the "first-order
meaning" or first level of signification, interprets the picture as just
"the child saluting the flag." as the first thing that comes mind, while besides thinking that "a child
saluting the flag" Barthes thinks it signifies that " that France is
a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination,
faithfully serve under her flag" (Barthes 115). Barthes thinks beyond the
first level of signification and interprets the event to the second level of
signification which means, actually it is not simply what we see but how we see
it.
In
conclusion, Barthes brings another dimension to the system of signs and builds
another layer on the top of Saussure's system of signs. Text or language is not
the only system of communication, but a picture itself can have a meaning and
be used as means of communication. Everything can be a "myth"
because, as he points out: "Every object in the world can pass from a
closed, silent existence to an oral state, open to appropriation by society,
for there is no law, whether natural or not, which forbids talking about things."
(Barthes 107). Furthermore, the "myth" is not what we see and simply
what comes to our mind first, which is the first level of signification, but it
is mostly about how we see it.
Works Cited
Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. New York: Noonday, 1972.
Print.
Hawkes, Terence. Structuralism & Semiotics.
Berkeley (Calif.) [etc.: University of California, 1977. Print.
Kincheloe, Joe L. Multiple Intelligences Reconsidered.
New York, NY: P. Lang, 2004. Print.
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