Introduction to Semiotics of Cultures, 2010
Ronald Barthes – Modern Myths
Vesa Matteo Piludu
University of Helsinki
The first part of Mythologies
Is fragmentary, kaleidoscopic
The articles seems to be disconnected
But there is a recurrent topic: all the myths are presented by media as natural and obvious fact, without historical and social background
Even are all myths of the ‘50, some element of them could be easily found in contemporary popular cultures
For the most part written every month for Les Lettres Nouvelles between 1954-56
The theoretic part, analyzed in the first lecture, Myth Today was written in 1972
The myths of French society are part of a process in which the middle class or bourgeois ideology falsely impart universal standing to symbols that have an historical status
Best cultural criticism: no criticism at all!
The Middle class hit lights well balanced rhetoric: it is always better be moderate
Culture, as a noble universal thing, should be opposed to ideologies (reactionary or communist)
Culture is falsely presented as something created ex-nihilo, outside the social choices
It should be good for all, light, pure Opposed to heavy, dark ideologies
The culture is supposed be good for all, something neutral, free from judgment
The best literature is presented as eternal
Eternal or social artist?
The best artists or literates are heroes admired without critic, good only for National pride
In Italy Dante is considered the eternal poet, it is mythologized and depurated from his historical and political environments
But Dante is far to be a neutral moderate: he put an relevant number of popes, priests and politics into the Inferno (hell)
Critics of novels and drama
When the critics doesn’t understand a word of the book they add two arguments:
Criticism is unnecessary because the subject is ineffable
If they are too stupid to understand the book, this is unsuitable for the common folk (even more imbecile)
So where is the problem? The clarity of the author Ideas seems dangerous if they are not controlled by common sense Culture should be nothing but a sweet rhetorical function, ready to be
understood by all If critics fear the analysis, why they become a critic?
Problem: it’s impossible to understand philosophy using the common sense
But luckily the philosophers are able to understand the critics’ disappointment and common sense
Verne as a national myth
Verne is a myth of French literature, general synonym for
adventures travels modernity technology
Verne as the mythographer of closed spaces
For Barthes Verne’s literature is something else: A self-sufficient cosmology of closed spaces
The travels of Verne are mostly exploration if closures, the delight of the finite: something similar to a children’s tent
The Mysterious Island, the travel to the centre of the World
Verne, as man-child, re-invented a microcosms, it fills it and it close it: the writer seems to be obsessed by plentitude and appropriation, accumulation of object
He tends to be encyclopedic as a Dutch painter and says: the world is finite, numerable, suitable for inventories and catalogues
Nautilus as a nice house
Is a progressive bourgeois: the world is like a nutshell, an object in his hand
The ship is not a model for departure but closure: a nice finite space with many objects, a home, a house, like the nautilus, the most lovely of caves
Inside the human habits Outside the vagueness of waters
The Nautilus could be considered the opposite of Rimbaud’s Drunken boat, clearly a symbol of exploration
Writers in holiday
Article on Le Figaro Bossuet going down to Congo
In vacation the writer add vocation to leisure Common holidays are for working people
The writer is different from the common mortals: even in vacation, he doesn’t stop producing:
He is writing memories, correcting proofs or preparing in absolute secret his next book
It’s natural that the writer is writing all the time and in all the situations
He is prey of an inner god who speaks all the time: his muse doesn’t know the word vacation
Angiographies of genius, of different beings
Women novellist
According to Elle
Women novelists produce essentially to things: children and novels
Jacqueline Lenoir (two daughter, one novel), Marina Gray (one son, one novel), Nicole Dutreil (two sons, four novels)
It seems that the little bohemia allowed (be a writer), is logically connected to the previous tribute to nature
Discurse: Women novelists are obviously brave, symbols of self-confidence,
they write like men: a model Even so, don’t forget they are women too
Women are considered mostly as homogenous being
The mystic brain of Einstein
The genius’ brain had a magical dimension, that had been studied with seismographers
Einstein death: “the most powerful brain has stopped thinking”
The formula E=mc2 is of an unexpected simplicity, suitable for modern myth
It has been considered a kid of magic formula of the word
The magician that failed
Also Einstein is a common mortal, suitable to failure
He died without having been able to verify the equation in which the secret of the world was enclosed
Jet - pilot
Jet – pilot as a new race: half robot with a new skin Dietetic prescriptions New technical race
Aviators vs. Jet - pilot
First aviators: hagiography, age of miracles and excess
Jet-age: monastic, continence, temperance
Uniform and mask Submission to collective ends Inhuman condition and
religious call
Electoral photography
The nature of the election is elitist and paternalist
Electoral photos try desperately to create a personal link between the politicians and the electorate
The politic exalted himself as a perfect model of a social type, that is somewhat similar to the elector
In a certain sense the elector is persuaded to elect a double of himself
Electoral photography
Mystical connection between thought, will, reflections, actions: the inner dream
Hit lighted social status, respectability
The wrestling and performance of pain
Is not a sport, a demonstration of excellence, as boxing or judo Judo in particular eludes any theatrical element, has a esoteric
meaning and even the defeat is eluded rapidly
Is a staged event Is a show of excess, like the one in Ancient theatres A spectacle, a performance of suffering and passion
The public is completely disinterested if the contest is rigged or not, they are interested in the quality of the performance
In wrestling there should be an immediate reading of passions: all the gestures are excessive, especially in defeat
Wrestlers and theatre
The wrestlers are presented as types, as mask of the antiquity or Commedia dell’Arte
Orsano was the effeminate teddy boy Reinières the image of passivity Mauzard arrogant as a cock
Thauyin was the very representation of ugliness, baseness: dead flesh
All his action were represented by viscosity The body is a symbol of the moral values: treachery, cruelty and
cowardice
The types represent an Human comedy of passion were all is clear, intelligible, an immediate pantomime
The suffering man is similar to a tragic mask
Wrestling and justice
The pleasure in wrestling is seeing a barbarian concept of justice working perfectly: eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth
In wrestling the villain is about to win, doing all the kind of tricks and breaking all the rules: he is the very image of transgression
The public is revolted against him and in favor of the contestant At the end the contestant win and the public enjoys to see how the
villa is defeated
For this reason, a fair fight is an exception, in wrestling the orgy of evil works better to create interest in the public
The public loves the baroque confusion
French and American wrestling
In France wrestling is more connected with the barabarian concept of justice
In America there are more complicate symbols connected to politics and ethnic issues: the wrestling seems a mythological fight between good and evil
The Villain
Is an unstable, socially unpredictable
He accept the rules when they are useful to him, but takes refuge behind the rules when he consider that they are favorable to him
It breaks all the possible laws when is useful to do so
The wrestling villain isn’t only cruel, he is inconsistent: he offend not only moral, but logic
For the public what is intolerable is not the rule-breaking, that is normal, but the fact that the villain remain unpunished, as it generally happens in real life
The wrestling should be exactly what the public expect: pure signification of an ideal brutal justice
The villains are somewhat similar to many Italian politics, but unfortunately these are never brutally punished by machos on a public stage
Papa Shango vs. Ultimate Warrior 1992
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrQnoplcmz0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6nU3tU87ew&feature=related
Striptease
Few erotism
Baroque exoticism: Chinese woman with an opium pipe Venetian decor with gondola
Fours, adornments more important than naked skin: ritualized objects are acting as a luxurious shell
The woman is presented as a mineral
The alibi of art makes ritual gestures that are a kind of exorcism of sex
Moulin Rouge even worse: contest and prizes Striptease became a sport, a career, even a National institution
The Lost Continent: postcard ethnography
False ethnographic film
4 Italian explorers in Malay archipelago
All is easy, innocent as a tourist boat trip
Postcard world based on the glamour of the images
Formal exotism without historical background
The Far East is somewhat similar to west: the Buddhists monks are presented was quasi-Christian
All the folkloric rituals are presented as natural, they “illustrate” the nature (season, death, storm or whatever), never history
Fishing is not presented in its reality, but is presented the romantic essence of be a fisherman
The Lost Continent: postcard ethnography
Fishing is not presented in its reality, but is presented the romantic essence of be a fisherman
Beautiful sunset, eternal natural condition
Peril on the sea and women weeping at home
The Blue Guide’s world: human commedia?
In classic tourist guide book’s all is picturesque: landscapes, humans, monuments
Man seems to exist only as types: Basque sailor, Catalan tradesman, Cantabrian sentimental highlander, Italian romantic lover man, Brazilian sensual, Parisian sophisticate
All the “national” characters are clear prototypes of a classical ballet or Commedia dell’arte
Only in trains or metro: there is a very “mixed” people
Any analytical description is futile
Many of the monument preserved:
Present a country selecting only national characters and monuments suppress the social reality of the land
Art is presented as the fundamental value of cultures, eliminating the rest
Arts is represented as an economic good, that could be “accumulated”: ´Spain is full of art, rich of sculpture … the museums are full of treasures of art
The country seems in competition to demonstrate to have more art or more relevant, ancient art
The contents of the art, or the meaning of paintings, seems to be less interesting of the great amount of it
Abbé Pierre
Presented bearded: a clear symbol of monastic evangelical life, missionaries, poverty, apostleship or hermits
The secular, urban clergy is represented shaved, more temporal
Soap-powders and detergents
In the first Word Detergent Congress There was Omo euphoria The detergents haven’t harmful effect on skin and they could save
miners from silicosis
Chlorinated fluids are presented as aggressive: they beats, pushes
They are like liquid saviors but blind, liquid fire in war: they burn, kill the dirt
Powders are selective: are separating agents of liberation The dirt isn’t killed, is forced out, as in an exorcism They aren’t soldiers, are police
The dirt, in any case, is the enemy
Omo myths: dept and foamy
Commercial and social vanity: comparison between two objects and one is whither than the other
In Omo myths, the consumer is helping the police, he is the accomplice of a liberation
Omo is cleaning in dept all what is obscure But are the clothes so deep as seas or oceans
Mythology of foam the foam is absolutely useless It’s only luxury, a symbol of abundant proliferation, a vigorous germ,
an airy substance Bubbles connected with air and spirituality
The mythology cover the real abrasive function of the detergent under the cover of a mystical substance that govern the molecular order of materials … transforming all in bubbles
Commercials
Retro Tide commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AVfhSWoI1g&feature=related
Tide Detergent Commercial - VINTAGE - 1950s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSB7HTFECdk&feature=related
OMO Commercial - Dirt Is Good http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MX2Fq2VZW4
Ajax washing powder - Australian TV commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhOOhqXyleg&feature=related
Tide Laundry Detergent Ad from 1990 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiOUFkz1jcU&feature=related
Mr. Clean Commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0YPsuZYZIY&feature=related
Plastic
Names of Greek shepherds (Polystirene, Polyvinil)
Alchemical power: transmutation and infinite powers of transformation
It seems that is possible to plasticize the entire world
Plastic
Plastic is the material of the imitations that have only the pretention and the appearance of the original material
Plastic is reproducing cheaply something more luxurious, but have no noble mineral origin (wood, metal, glass)
Plastic is not hard, not deep, but have resistance
Disgraced material: opaque, creamy when it fall, make no sound Colors are chemical, of aggressive quality
Citroen
Cars as modern gothic cathedrals Supreme creation of an era Conceived by unknown artists
New Citroen as Nautilus Round shaped Exaltation of glass Soap bubbles
Toys as microcosms
French toys are a small model of the adult world, a microcosms: army, the post office, transports, school, medicine
The toys prefigure in the children the world of the adult They learn to accept is as natural, inevitable
The social order is like a second nature, expressed as an imitation –abdication: even the dolls are able to urinate
The children is essentially an owner, not a creator: doesn’t invent the world, he used it
All is ready made by plastic, a product of chemistry, not nature
Disappearance of wood toys, with their natural warm The wood toys last a long time and live with the child Are a product of the era of the craftsman, not of industry
Block toys
Different logic
The children are creators, demiurges
They create the world and the forms they want to, not necessarily the one that are imposed them
Margarine: your uncle will be furious!
Astra’s commercial
Margarine? Unthinkable! “Your uncle will be furious!” The commercial show a prejudice
Then the eyes are opened and margarine is a delicious food … And cheap It goes further than butter, and cost less
Alchemical transformation of values
Metaphor of political propaganda What does it matter if the political and economical order is a little
brutal? It allows us to live cheaply
Romans in films
Many clichés All the Ancient Romans are presented with fringes Symbol of virtue, conquest, self righteousness, simplicity Evidence of the being a good Roman
Many Anglo-Saxons actors are ridiculous in their Ancient Roman looks
For Barthes, only Marlon Brando is Latin in off to be credible
Another clichés: the Roman’s face sweat constantly, being full of Vaseline
It’s a strange symbol for moral feeling: the Roman are beings tormented by virtues or violent things
Banality: to sweat is to think Degraded spectacle of the sweating of thoughts
Only Caesar isn’t sweating: it’s becaouse he is the object of the crime, he doesn’t know about it, so he doesn’t think and sweat
Roman Brando
Julius Caesar 1953 Theatrical Trailer
adaptation of Shakespeare's play by Joseph L. Mankiewicz for MGM starring Marlon Brando. Brando's performance resulted in his third consecutive Best Actor nomination in 1953.
Marlon Brando in Julius Caesar (1953) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KXhfjOkKPM&feature=related
Troy
Achilles dies: Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0g8uTZmKM4&feature=related
Greta Garbo
The Divine The iconographical image of female beauty Mystical feeling In Queen Christina the make is like a mask sculpted in snow Perfect and ephemeral
A platonic idea of a human creature
The perfection of Garbo is more intellectual than formal Her mask is a sum of lines and their thematic harmony
Garbo is the archetype of the lyricism of women It creates awe and charm
Audrey Hepburn is another model, more individualized, suitable for different themes (woman-kitten-child): its more “substance” than idea
If Garbo is an Idea, Hepburn is an Event
QUEEN CHRISTINA 1933
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52xrA9hQhI8
MGM 1933. Greta Garbo, John GilbertIn 1632, after her father, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, dies on the battlefield, six-year-old Christina is crowned ruler. Reared by her father as a boy, Christina accepts the crown as the "king" of Sweden and then vows to her court, which is headed by Chancellor Oxenstierna, that Sweden will fight until it wins the war.
Chaplin and Modern Times
Problem in socialist films or drama: the worker is fulfilled with sense of destiny, obviously he is a revolutionary
In Modern Times, Chaplin offer a more realist image of the worker that is still blind: interested only in basic needs, he is a man who’s hungry
He is totally alienated, at the hands of his masters-employers and police
The artificial worker’s life is well expressed by the food dispensing machine
Showing the blindness of the worker, Chaplin is able to show also the blindness of the public
The anarchy of Chaplin seems the most efficient form of revolution in art
No socialist work succeeded in expressing the condition of the worker so well
In Brecht there is the representation of the workers’ conscious fight for their right, but the texts are poor of aesthetic force