Of Wine and Steak: Reading Gustatory Signs/Signifiers in Roland Barthes’ Essays

Abstract

Roland Barthes’ Mythologies perhaps has the singular distinction of having baffled scholars of semiotics/cultural studies or anyone who has taken an interest in the history of French colonialism and its nefarious influence on the ‘empire’ (Algeria, in particular). This article despite its limitations, intends to demystify/unravel some ostensibly innocuous ‘culinary predilections’ in vogue (during the 1950s-1960s and in some cases even germane to the 21st century) in France. In addition to his magnum opus, I will focus on his other significant text on the same topic (and gastro nationalism), Toward a Psychosociology of contemporary food consumption.