Review: THE RING CYCLE (PARTS 1-4) by Stephen Cedars
In his collection Mythologies, Roland Barthes published a short, elucidating essay called "The World of Wrestling," in which he explores how the archetypes of ancient tragedy and comedy are evoked by the excessive spectacle of the American "sport." By extension, the argument he poses is that the great mythological archetypes are resonant throughout our culture, even in ostensibly low-brow entertai…