From Loss to Oblivion

Abstract

Abstract This explorative article conceptualizes the myth as a cultural locus where different concepts are ordered forming semantic networks and as a social narrative reflecting emotional predispositions toward the social significance of an episode in the past. The article analyzes the semantic network formed within the Arthurian myth by the concepts Britain and imperium. It identifies a persistent semilogical dynamic between both concepts but shifting emotional responses and temporalities: loss and longing among the Welsh (sixth century to eleventh century), fixing the memory in the past; joy among the English (twelfth century to fifteenth century), bringing the memory into the present; and anxiety and desire among Welsh and English (sixteenth century) projecting the memory to the future. During the seventeenth century, the semantic network left the Arthurian myth, which fell into a relative oblivion.