Photo : courtesy of the artist
In what is considered his “textbook” essay on semiotic analysis, “Rhetoric of the Image” (1964), Roland Barthes examines in depth a Panzani ad featuring a simple photograph of a string shopping bag overflowing cornucopia-style with a selection of the brand’s packaged pasta and canned sauce alongside tomatoes, onions, and peppers. He argues that certain foods placed together signify an aura of “Italianicity,” automatically associated in the popular imagination with abundance, authenticity, and a “mangia, mangia” hospitality.
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