Mythologies

Mythologies (French: Mythologies, lit. 'Mythologies') is a 1957 book by Roland Barthes. It contains a collection of fifty-three short essays written between 1954 to 1956, most of which were first published in the French literary review Les Lettres nouvelles. In these essays, Barthes examines the tendency of contemporary social value systems (specifically that of the bourgeoisie) to create modern myths. In the book Barthes also analyzes the semiology of the process of myth creation itself, updating Ferdinand de Saussure's system of sign analysis by adding a second level where signs are elevated to the level of myth. Mythologies was first published in English in abridged form in 1972. In 2012, Hill & Wang published a new English language edition of the book, Mythologies: The Complete Edition, in a New Translation, translated by Richard Howard (Part I: Mythologies) and Annette Lavers (Part II: Myth Today).