Abstract

Far from negating former structuralist purposes, Roland Barthes’ Empire of Signs (1970) is an attempt to better understand general semiotic functioning thanks to the Alterity quotient provided by the Japanese setting. Drawing on the concept of Japanese unity, Barthes engages in a series of reading exercises of daily life aspects as if they were texts. He finds the breaking point of signs’ efficiency where the symbolization is reduced at its minimum (food, bowing) or the sign refuses to conform to the expected function (packets). In this, Barthes’ operation aligns with the common purposes of the French Theory of his period (Bourdieu, Foucault), aiming to demystify the constructed origin of what is presented as nature.