The very title of Roland Barthes’s book “Mythologies,” which just came out in a new translation by Richard Howard and Annette Lavers, is a misnomer. There’s nothing of Sisyphus or Oedipus in the fifty ...

Ferdinand de Saussure defined semiology as “a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life.” We all practice it before we learn the word: High school drills it into us, if nothing ...

There's a lot to say about what makes cars cool: They're fast, they serve a practical purpose, and they can be downright gorgeous. But the best explanation we've ever seen (and which we just came ...

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Acclaimed writer and critic Peter Conrad continues to analyse 21st century popular culture in the spirit of Roland Barthes. In 1954, the French critic and semiotician Barthes began a series of essays ...