This article is an invited paper, subjected to open review by the Editors and/or the Editorial Board

This article has been published in: Ocula 17, One hundred and one years of Barthes (1915-2016)

author: Marcel Danesi (Department of Semiotics, Università di Toronto (CA) )

From classical myth to recycled myth: pop culture according to Roland Barthes

language: italian

abstract: This essay makes critical reference to Barthes’ Mythologies (1956), the text which has been recognised as fundamental to the semiological study of mass and popular culture. However, the essay also goes beyond paying due homage to this seminal work by moving beyond it to provide the context of North American and British studies of mass culture, based on recent theories of mass media and new media, in which Barthes is completely absent. A final comparison concerns the cognitive sciences as “rival sciences” to the semiotic study of pop culture.

citation information: Marcel Danesi, Dal mito classico al mito riciclato: La cultura di massa secondo Roland Barthes, "Ocula", vol.17, n.17, January 2016. DOI: 10.12977/ocula55

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