Myth-making as sensemaking in modern literary criticism

Abstract

This article explores modern literary criticism as part of a cultural narrative, capable of constructing and structuring historical memory and creating myths. The article discovers the “plot” of successive forms of mythologization and demythologization of the past in criticism. In the 1990s, amid the collapse of the magazine circulation, nostalgic recollection of the (post) “thaw” became relevant as a myth of the “Golden Age”, which served a therapeutic function for literary criticism. The forms of nostalgia included memories of the time of youth, a return to the past, a view of it from “outside” and wistfulness for long bygone values. The 1990s were perceived as a time of crisis and catastrophe. Two decades later, criticism reversed from nostalgia to demythologization and destroyed the myth of the (post) “thaw” “Golden Age”. Mythologization is considered by the critics of the 2020s to be a dangerous way of thinking. At the same time, a tendency to build a new myth about the “golden time” is emerging: In the memories of the critics, the 1990s start losing negative associations and turn into an image symbolizing a decade of true freedom in the “Golden Age”. By creating and destroying myths, criticism tries to comprehend the modern sociocultural situation and its status. The past helps to discover the structure, order and patterns that allow understanding the present.