New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology » October 7:  Myth in American Culture

October 7:  Myth in American Culture

Remember, we don’t meet again until Monday, 10/21. You will have Weekly Discussion Posts and other things to do, so follow the syllabus.

Plan for the Day

  • Last bit on Hauntology
  • Film Genres: Horror, Suspense, Thriller
  • Roland Barthes on Myth

Barthes on Rhetoric

Previously, I assigned two books from Barthes but have settled on “Death of an Author” and the essay “Novels and Children,” which comes from the book Mythologies, a compilation of essays he wrote and published in 1957 (1972 is when the English translation came out).

What can Barthes teach us about rhetoric? He has an example on p. 136, and on p. 150, he identifies what he means by “rhetoric“:

  • “a set of fixed, regulated, insistent figures, according to which the varied forms of the mythical signifier arrange themselves….It is through their rhetoric that bourgeois myths outline the general prospect of this pseudo-physis which defines the dream of the contemporary bourgeois world.”

Some other words to define:

  • physis: nature
    From Greek: the material we can sense in the cosmos.
  • anti-physis: what we can’t sense (but we think we do)
  • pseudo-physis: ideologically real

Barthes’s Mythologies

I didn’t assign the “Preface” to Barthes’s book, but I thought it might be good to provide some context. Here are few terms to define from the preface:

Key quotations from the preface:

  • p. 9: First theoretical framework is “an ideological critique bearing on the language of so-called mass-culture.”
    • Second theoretical framework is “a first attempt to analyse semiologically the mechanics of this language.”
  • p. 11: Barthes’s motivation for Mythologies is “a feeling of impatience at the sight of the ‘naturalness’ with which newspapers, art and common sense constantly dress up reality which…is undoubtedly determined by history.”
  • p. 11: “myth is a language”
  • p. 12: a paraphrase of a paraphrase: things repeated are culturally significant.
  • p. 12: “I cannot countenance [definition #3] the traditional belief which postulates a natural dichotomy between the objectivity of the scientist and the subjectivity of the writer, as if the former were endowed with a ‘freedom’ and the latter with a ‘vocation’ equally suitable for spiriting away or sublimating the actual limitations of their situation. What I claim is to live to the full contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth.“

I’m sure you’re all surprised that I assigned an author who claims he wants to make sarcasm the condition of truth…

“Novels and Children”

Those of you from the spring 2024 Rhetorical Theory class might remember my 2021 SEACS presentation, which eventually became the short article “The Ethos of Motherhood: Nominating Amy Coney Barrett and Kamala Harris” in Convergences. Spoiler alert: Kamala Harris discusses being a stepmother (“Sen. Kamala Harris on Being ‘Momala’.”) shortly before she decided to run for President in 2019…guess which publication it came out in? Kind of full circle, huh?

Barthes identifies gender reproduction in Elle magazine’s decision to photograph female novelists alongside their children. He argues this is what patriarchy (unconsciously…although many would easily argue this is overt sexism) expects: Women can work, but they have to fulfill their “natural” role as mothers.

Nancy Pelosi, first Madame Speaker of the House

Take a look at these images of Nancy Pelosi and the fact that she had been surrounded by children when she took over the position of Speaker of the house (1/4/2007):

What might Barthes say about the choice of children surrounding her?
From where does female power come?

Notice the background when John Boehner takes over as Speaker of the House, 2011 (there used to be more readily available online). Then, Paul Ryan takes the gavel, 2015. Also, California Rep. Jimmy Gomez got attention a year or so ago for wearing a kid.

***Yes, there is a picture of Boehner holding a baby when he takes over as Speaker, and there are pictures of children in the audience when Ryan takes over. But to not recognize the OVERWHELMING presence of children during Pelosi’s first time taking over as Speaker of the House is willfully ignoring the gendered message that was just as obvious to Barthes in the 1950s.

Next Class and Week

On Wednesday, 10/09, you have your Midterm Exam on Canvas, so we’re not meeting as a class. Instead, you’ll take the Midterm Exam from wherever you have internet access. Next week, we’re not meeting on Monday, 10/14, because it’s Fall Break. We’re also not meeting Wednesday, 10/16, but you have a film on Kanopy to watch: Killing Us Softly 4 (2010). You have Weekly Discussion Posts this week and next week, so make sure you’re doing them.

Look ahead on the syllabus and start reading for future weeks. Lots of reading will be coming up.

Works Cited

Harris, Kamala. “Sen. Kamala Harris on Being ‘Momala’.” Elle, 10 May 2019, https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a27422434/kamala-harris-stepmommothers-day/.