Analysis of Barthes' "Mythologies" social theory essays

Barthes' "Mythologies" is a criticism of modern consumerist society. In the 1950s, when the essays were written, there was nothing at all new about criticism directed at "bourgeois" society; Marx had written more than a century earlier of how the bourgeoisie maintained their unjust position of luxury at the top of society by exploiting the working classes. What is unique about "Mythologies" is the approach Barthes chooses for his attack on "bourgeois" society. While Marx …

…in their original approach to criticism of bourgeois society. In conclusion, Barthes analyses several different processes used by the bourgeoisie to ensure that its worldview continues to prevail as is appropriate given that any culture may be defined as: "a structure of conceptual systems, including language, each of which, using its own peculiar terms, reinforces the others." Hence, "semiology is only one element of Barthes' critique of consumer culture and arguably not the most important".