Mythologies

Author's name: Roland Barthes Publisher: Jamal Publications for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2018 Literary classification: Biographies and Memoirs Brief about the book: What is myth today? I will immediately provide a very simple answer that perfectly aligns with the origin of the word: myth is speech… Not necessarily any speech: language must meet specific conditions to become a myth: we will review them quickly. But what must be presented at the beginning is that myth is a communication system, it is a message. And this allows one to understand that myth cannot be a subject or a concept or an idea; it is a form of signification and a shape… And we see that believing in a fundamental distinction between mythical subjects according to their content would be entirely illusory: since myth is speech, everything can be a myth, and speech can litigate it. Myth is not defined by its subject matter but by the way it is told: there are formal boundaries in myth, but there are no essential boundaries. So can everything be a myth? Yes, I believe so, because the universe is suggestive without limits.