Mythologies, a collection of essays by the French critic Roland Barthes, is representative of an emerging subcategory of literary criticism. It is a critical text which indulges freely in artistic and metaphorical language, transforming cultural objects—cars, films, wrestling, body creams, etc.—through poetic description. The book belongs to a tradition of works which challenge the distinction between analytic and creative language and which undermine the boundaries between discursive genres. For this project, I have asked the question: how do Barthes' literary descriptions function as criticism? To answer this, I look to the theories of Viktor Shklovsky and the Russian Formalists, who contend that literary language deliberately obstructs and delays understanding in order to make its object appear unfamiliar and new. I argue that Barthes is utilizing this quality of literary language in order to create a mental space for the reevaluation of culture. His colorful and exaggerated descriptions serve not as factual representations, but as a rhetorical means of delaying the otherwise automatic mental consumption of culture. This hybridization of critical and literary practices opens new possibilities accessible to neither discourse in isolation.

Critical Fictions: Barthes' Mythologies