Chapter 27 11/1

In this chapter, the ideas of the literary and culture theorist Roland Barthes are discussed. The excerpt in the chapter was taken from one of his most well known books, Mythologies. Unlike many other theorists, Barthes emphasizes the hidden ideological content of such things as televised professional wrestling, toys, margarine and plastic. In the second section of the book, Barthes argues that “myth is not defined by the object of its message, but by the way it utters this message”. In this quote, he is saying a myth should not be defined by the idea it is trying to bring forth, but rather on HOW it brings this message out. In the next part of his book, Barthes describes aspects of everyday things that we usually overlook. When discussing soap powders and detergents, he points out that one particular product claims to clean “deep”. This suggests that the linens the powder cleans are deep, however we all know this is not the case as linens are very thin. The important thing we can take from Barthes is to look at texts, rituals and objects as signs, as they all have meanings that can be deciphered. I agree with Barthes in this sense because I believe everything has some type of meaning to us and as a semiotician we must figure it out. However, there are definitely objects in everyday life that we tend to overlook that may have some type of explicit meaning.