In search of the miraculous: the miracle category in 20th century’s mythological theories

Abstract

The paper deals with the intellectual history of comprehension of the miracle as the most important category of mythological narrative. We take A. F. Losev’s «Dialectics of Myth» as a starting point, where the appeal to the category of «miracle» was meant to emphasize the personal dimension of myth. Similar ideas are revealed in the works of 20th century European scholars. In the focus of attention first of all the theories of mythology of the authors, which in different degree were under the influence of C.-G. Jung’s concept of collective unconscious. In the report «About the synchronicity» he also made an attempt to comprehend the phenomenon of the miraculous through its belonging to personal experience, namely the individual or collective unconscious. C.-H. Jung has predetermined the direction of research of many scientists, both sharing his ideas, and polemicizing with him. The desire to comprehend mythological patterns in their connection with human intellectual activity united researchers who belonged to very different directions: they were anthropologists, structuralists, researchers of architectonics of the imaginary and philosophers, traditionalists.