Barthes - Mythologies

Myth Today, page 1 of 26

from Mythologies by Roland Barthes

[translated by Annette Lavers, Hill and Wang,

New York, 1984]

MYTH TODAY

What is a myth, today? I shall give at the outset a

first, very simple answer, which is perfectly

consistent with etymology: myth is a type of

speech.1

Myth is a type of speech

Of course, it is not any type: language needs

special conditions in order to become myth: we

shall see them in a minute. But what must be

firmly established at the start is that myth is a

system of communication, that it is a message.

This allows one to perceive that myth cannot

possibly be an object, a concept, or an idea; it is

a mode of signification, a form. Later, we shall

have to assign to this form historical limits,

conditions of use, and reintroduce society into it:

we must nevertheless first describe it as a form.

It can be seen that to purport to discriminate

among mythical objects according to their

substance would be entirely illusory: since myth

is a type of speech, everything can be a myth

provided it is conveyed by a discourse. Myth is

not defined by the object of its message, but by

the way in which it utters this message: there are

formal limits to myth, there are no 'substantial'

ones. Everything, then, can be a myth? Yes, I

believe this, for the universe is infinitely fertile

in suggestions. 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. A tree is a tree. Yes, of

course. But a tree as expressed by Minou Drouet

is no longer quite a tree, it is a tree which is

decorated, adapted to a certain type of

consumption, laden with literary selfindulgence, revolt, images, in short with a type

of social usage which is added to pure matter.

Naturally, everything is not expressed at the

same time: some objects become the prey of

mythical speech for a while,...