Myths, Semiology, and Imagined Mass Experiences

Although the Saussure reading contained too much fascinating linguistic theory to summarize in a mere blog post, perhaps the part that interested me the most was how well it tied in to the ideas of the later Barthes reading and the prior Anderson and Benjamin readings. Barthes's idea of taking Saussure's definition of a linguistic system one step further and applying it to myth and art was intriguing, as was his juxtaposition of seemingly contradictory notions, such as the extension of Saussure's idea that the passage of time both ensures the continuation and endurance of linguistic signs and catalyzes their evolution. The second-order language described by Barthes, with its irreducible polysemy, was an interesting continuation of this concept beyond the realm of what one would normally regard as speech or language.

The ideas of reproducibility and replaceability that Barthes proposed - the fact that the black boy on the cover of the magazine could have been anyone, or the anonymity of the officers and elderly women in the images we discussed in class - also seemed to be an interesting potential link with the Benjamin reading about the consequences of mass reproducibility. With the loss of the aura of pieces of art upon their reproduction, so too went the specificity of the subjects. A similar tie-in with the Anderson article quickly became evident when Barthes dove into his explanation of the roots and reason behind myth, the transformation of history into something totally altered. The national leveraging of the standard that we discussed in class was again a perfect parallel to the imagined community sparking the nationalism discussed and analyzed by Anderson.

In the end, that was what struck me upon finishing the week's readings: how different they were in subject from Anderson's nationalism and Benjamin's reproducibility (and fascism), but how they still seemed to be natural and deeply linked extensions of those concepts. Though I had difficulty understanding the finer points of the readings, especially Mythologies, the lectures helped to clear that up, and I hope the section will clear up any lingering doubts.