Barthes’s Black Soldier
The Making of a Mythological Celebrity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9345274 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lydie Moudileno (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Pages | 57-72 |
| Publication date | 2019-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Yearbook of Comparative Literature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0084-3695 • E-ISSN: 1947-2978 |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/ycl.62.017 |
| OpenAlex | W2969234570 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 7 |
This article examines Roland Barthes’s representation of the African body and the theoretical use of blackness in one of his most famous texts, Mythologies (1957). More specifically, it examines the implications of the paradigmatic status conferred to the so-called “black soldier” based on the analysis of a popular French magazine photography. It argues not only that Barthes’s original representation is fraught with misreadings of the image, but also that the mythological celebrity of the black soldier has been deployed through the uncritical repetition of this initial take. Finally, the article points to existing or potential reexaminations of this celebrity in film and photography
Art · Linguistics · Literature · Mythology · Photography · Political science · Politics · Repetition (rhetorical device · Representation (politics · Visual arts · African history and culture studies · Comics and Graphic Narratives · History · Law · Philosophy · Photography and Visual Culture
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |