Roland Barthes: The Nature of Myth in the Modern Landscape Noah Bader - Fourney College

Without myth, who would we be; what would we believe? Myths shape culture and history; they manipulate our beliefs, surround, and transform our lives. Governments, leaders, businesses and advertisers use myths to allow individuals, to live day to day without considering all the true consequences of their actions. They construct myths to provoke or appease emotion. In essence, myths simplify issues, stripping away our critical thinking in order to exploit the desired sentiment. In his work Mythologies, Roland Barthes speaks to the nature of myth as based entirely in semiology. He examines societies tendency to create myths in order to implement social values, placate or persuade people. Applying Barthes' understanding of myth allows for a critical examination of the semiology, motivations, and distortions that lie behind a message.

Barthes asserts that myth is merely a type of discourse: “a system of communication” (Barthes 107). Myth is the way in which a culture, or a person uses language spoken or visual to signify, and grant meaning to the surrounding world. There can exist no limits on what a myth can be, as it “is not defined by the object of its message, but by the way in which it utters this message” (107). Myth is...