Definition Of Myth Research Articles

Religiøse fantomsmerter

Religious Phantom Pains - The Khmer Rouge and Victims' historiographyThis article explores the ways in which biographical accounts by Cambodian refugees in the West portray the oppression during the reign of Pol Pot in the late 1970s. Arguing that victims' biographies constitute a specific genre which is rapidly growing, perhaps due to a general increase in the attention to the voices of the marginalized, the article outlines typical characteristics inherent in this historiographic genre, most notably the claim to representativity and authenticity.Both explicit and implicit religious dimensions can be identified in the Cambodian victims' biographies, and the article examines what this religious content reveals about the handling of the brutality in the Cambodian history. The religious dimension is expressed in both direct references to Buddhist doctrines and ideas and in the indirect truth-claims of the biographies. Invoking Bruce Lincoln's definition of myth as a strategic mode of discourse, possessed of authority and paradignatic truth, the article argues that the biographical accounts of the Cambodian genocide work as mythologies, casting the Khmer Rouge as a cosmological state of emergency, isolated from the Cambodian history at large. The view that the Pol Pot regime is a pathological condition expresses the idea that a functional religious system and the Khmer Rouge regime are mutually exclusive. Thus, religion in the biographies is paradoxically characterised by its absence. In conclusion, it is suggested that this concept of religion poses a more general challenge to sociology of religion regarding the way the analytical object is defined and the relation between text and context.

The psychotherapist's myths, dreams and realities

This keynote speech from the Second World Congress for Psychotherapy begins with Carl Jung's definition of myth as a vivid description of emotional experience and explores psychotherapists' personal myths as representing their motivation to be involved in the profession. The concept of dreams provides a metaphor for understanding diverse theories and appreciating the autobiographical nature of theory. Sophocles' Oedipus Rex is used to contrast Sigmund Freud's drive theory with a relational perspective of psychotherapy that includes a respectful inquiry into the client's phenomenological experience, history, system of coping and vulnerability. The realities of therapy call for a therapeutic involvement that is inter-subjective: a therapy that is centered on the client's experience while also allowing for the therapist's use of many personal attributes.

Mythic Aspects of the Process of Adam's Creation in Judaism and Islam

This paper aims to examine various tales of how God created Adam from clay as an example of mythopoetic activity in Islam. Comparison of the Jewish, Islamic and Gnostic material relating to the creation of Adam in these three religions will show that Islam, far from rejecting myth outright, in fact stands in the middle of a continuum whose extremes are Judaism (generally regarded as lacking in myth) on the one hand and Gnosticism (generally regarded as highly mythical) on the other. The study of myth has enjoyed renewed scholarly attention in recent years, and entire books have been devoted to the discussion of the question What is myth?' There is general agreement that a myth in the comparative-religious (or comparative-literary) sense is not a lie or a fiction, the usual meaning of myth in everyday speech. Beyond that consensus, confusion and controversy reign. The definition of myth most suited to the purpose of this paper is that used in folklore: a sacred narrative which explains how the world and humanity reached their present state.2 This definition encompasses the two most

Bultmann se ontmitologiseringsprogram herwaardeer

Bultmann's demythologising program reevaluated. The kerygma of the New Testament is depicted in the mythological language of a bygone mythological world-view. Bultmann suggested that demythologisation is necessary in order to explore the true Existenzverstandniss contained in the mythological concepts. Reaction to his program of demythologising was mostly negative, especially in South Africa. This article focuses on the necessity for demythologisation as well as Bultmann's definition of myth, in order to re-evaluate his program of demythologisation. Bultmann's demythologising program is considered as a responsible method for interpreting the texts of the New Testament.

Karl Mannheim, critique de Thomas More : ambiguïtés du champ conceptuel de l'anti-millénarisme anglais

Karl Mannheim occupies a prominent position through his dichotomy between utopia and ideology, illustrated by More's contrast between the Erasmian sage and Raphaël, traveller from the exotic realms of political fantasy. For the Hungarian philosopher, the history of utopian ideas in the system of the modern world since the Renaissance allows us to underline four types of Utopian mentality in ascending order, determined by history. Within that perspective, the Portuguese philosopher, a satiric figure for the Utopian, represents a certain millenarianism, a kind of world view which is, because of the nostalgia for its origins, totally ahistoric and anachronistic. Through Jean-Pierre Sironneau's sociology of the political imagination, the modern reader can grasp the ambiguities inherent in the conceptual field of Thomas More's utopian thought : the definitions of myth, ideology, utopia and millenarianism contribute to a new analysis of the workings of the two concepts of myth and ideology in the philosophic dialogues of the future Chancellor of Henry VIII. For the faithful disciple of Erasmus, the pattern of the Utopian's political thought belongs to the conceptual field of myth, even if it breaks off with the millenarian world view ascribed in 1381 to John Ball's Levellers. It becomes therefore obvious that Thomas More's political critique should be placed in the specific context of the ideology of the Tudor Absolutist State. Based on this contrast between myth and ideology, the structural antithesis of Thomas More's utopian discourse implies that the Erasmian cure to the illusionary nature of the Ideal City remains Aristotelian.

Binary Opposition in Myth: The Propp/Levi-Strauss Debate in Retrospect

In 1928, Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp published his pathbreaking Morphology of Folktale in a limited printing of only 1600 copies (Bravo 1972:45). In his Morphology, Propp delineated a syntagmatic sequence of thirty-one which he claimed defined Russian fairy tale (Aarne-Thompson tale types 300-749). Unfortunately, few Western scholars read Russian and Propp's important monograph had little impact upon direction of folk narrative study. Only famed linguist Roman Jakobson in his 1945 folkloristic commentary for Pantheon edition of Afanas'ev's Russian Fairy Tales referred to Propp's research in a brief summary of his findings (1945:640-641) . It was not until Professor Thomas A. Sebeok of Indiana University arranged for an English translation of Propp's Morphology in 1958 Propp's remarkable analysis became accessible to Western folklorists (cf. Breymayer 1972; Bremond and Verrier 1982; and Cardigos 1996:33-36, but see Chistov 1986:9). Three years earlier, French anthropologist Claude had responded favorably to an invitation issued by same Professor Sebeok who was then editor of Journal of American Folklore to participate in a symposium on myth. (Among others in symposium were David Bidney, Richard M. Dorson, Reidar Th. Christiansen, Lord Raglan, and Stith Thompson.) Levi-Strauss's paper, entitled Structural Study of Myth which initiated a veritable flood of 'structural' enterprises, was written without any knowledge of Propp's Morphology. The 1955 JAF issue was published as a separate book under title Myth: A Symposium in 1958, same year Propp's Morphology appeared in English. In his essay, contended that mythical always works from awareness of oppositions towards their progressive mediation and further the purpose of myth is to provide a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction (1955:440, 443). LeviStrauss has persisted in his definition of myth or mythical thought. In The Naked Man, final volume of four-volume Mythologiques, in a chapter entitled Binary Operators, he has this to say of mythemes, his neologism intended to refer to basic units of myth: Of course, all mythemes of whatever kind, must, generally speaking, lend themselves to binary operations, since such operations are an inherent feature of means invented by nature to make possible functioning of language and thought (1981:559). To be sure, is well aware he has been accused of overusing the notion of binary opposition (1995:185) . Like Propp, had proposed a formula for structure of narrative, but unlike Propp, his formula was totally algebraic involving functions and terms (1955:442; for a discussion of formula, see Mosko 1991). Whereas Propp had extrapolated his thirty-one function sequence from linear of events recounted in his 100 fairy tale corpus, sought to discover what he felt was underlying paradigm (of oppositions). did recognize order of events as presented in narrative as told, but he elected to ignore order. In his terms, myth will be treated as would be an orchestra score presented as a unilinear series and where our task is to re-establish correct disposition (1955:432, my emphasis). The use of descriptive label perversely seemed to suggest linear sequential (utilized by Propp) was an obstacle to be overcome by in his efforts to arrive at supposed underlying paradigm. As Champagne puts it, Levi-Strauss regards such linear, sequential forms as obvious and superficial (1995:42). is certainly cognizant of difference between syntagmatic and paradigmatic structure (1988:205). Moreover, throughout his four volume Mythologiques series, repeatedly denigrates sequential syntagmatic while at same time praising virtues of paradigmatic. …

Greek mythology: an introduction

This revised translation of Fritz Graf's highly acclaimed introduction to Greek mythology offers a chronological account of the principal Greek myths that appear in the surviving literary and artistic sources and concurrently documents the history of interpretation of Greek mythology from the 17th century to the present. First surveying the various definitions of myth that have been advanced, Graf proceeds to examine topics such as the relationship between Greek myths and epic poetry, the connection between particular myths and shrines or holy festivals, the use of myth in Greek song and tragedy, and the uses and interpretations of myth by philosophers and allegorists.

Mythe en rite in het oude Griekenland: Een overzicht van recente ontwikkelingen

This article charts the latest insights in the study of Greek (1) myth, (2) ritual, and (3) the relation between myth and ritual; each paragraph, though, starts with a short historical survey. Although the main aim of this contribution is introductory, it also takes issue with a very recent proposal for a new definition of myth and ritual and with sociobiological interpretations of the relation between myth and ritual.

On a limited approach to mythic criticism—Rowland's rejoinder

The functional/formal approach to mythic criticism provides an appropriate definition of myth that is not overly narrow. Use of this definition should allow the critic to distinguish the genuinely mythic from other narrative forms. The various objections to the perspective can be answered by means of a close consideration of the way that the proposed definition of mythic form and function would guide critical practice.

On mythic criticism

Recently, a number of critics have applied a mythic perspective to a wide variety of works. While the value of mythic criticism cannot be questioned, the method also may be stretched to include discourse that lacks either the function or the form of traditional myth. Reliance on a narrow formal/functional definition of myth can help critics avoid this problem.

Die ontmitologiseringsprogram van Rudolf Bultmann

Rudolf Bultmann's program of demythologizingAs the heading above indicates, the main purpose of this essay is an endeavour to give an exposition of Bultmann's program of demythologizing. Attention is consecutively given to Bultmann's definition of myth; the problem, according to Bultmann, created for modem man by the mythic worldview of the New Testament and the mythological depiction of the salvation event therein; the impossibility of upholding this view in modem times; the necessity for demythologizing; demythologizing through existential interpretation; results, such as Bultmann's views on speaking about God; the acts of God; God's revelation; the Christ-event and eschatology. The essay is concluded with a short, mainly appreciative evaluation.

Myth and History: A General Model and Its Application to the Bible

This paper focuses upon the prevalent complementary definitions of myth and history and questions their analytic utility with reference to literary documents that bespeak the transition between mythic and historic cognition. In the style of ethnosemantic analysis, these definitions are treated as a semantic domain and subjected to formal analysis. The components elicited constitute a new definition—more precisely, a two-dimensional model of the relationship between myth and history. Subsequently, the model is applied to a series of books from the Bible with the conclusion that men and women are structurally equal since, in their roles as social actors, both represent different components of myth as well as history.

Rabbinic theology and the unconscious

Among the contributions of psychology to our understanding of religion, the concept of the unconscious has most significantly led us to recognize the profundity of man's nature. Perhaps that is why Carl Jung describes the unconscious in almost mystical terms in speaking of dreams as having the character of revelations and in writing of the human dread of the unconscious.1 Jung, in effect, echoes the ancient view of dreams as being divine revelations. The sphere of dreams also encompasses that almost mysterious realm which Freud has labeled the unconscious. Rabbinic literature deals with dreams in a remarkably contemporary way, recognizing both the manifest and the latent meanings of dreams, which include the differential between conscious and unconscious.2 A possible mode of compre hending the unconscious in rabbinic thought is through the myths created by the rabbis as they endeavored to fathom the paradox that was man. The rabbis attempted to comprehend the ambivalent nature of the psyche, which they characterized as being composed of both an "evil inclination" and a "good inclination" or impulse. Man was at once intensely personal and sensual as well as social and ascetic. In effect, man embraced equally the divine and the demonic. The perception of the unconscious as being awesome is strikingly close to the powerful rabbinic myths about the presence of God in man's life. The rabbis spoke of the Shekinah as God's power indwelling among men (literally, the term Shekinah comes from the word "to dwell"). Through an examination of the way the rabbis used the term Shekinah to denote God's presence in the world, we can come to understand the rabbinic view of the unconscious as one manifestation of God's being in the world. Before we can proceed with this investigation, however, we must clarify some salient points about the function and value of myth. Henry A. Murray, a psychoanalyst and student of mythology, offers a definition of myth which appears relevant to our study of the Shekinah. Murray's definitions are arranged according to the aspects of myth, under each of which one or more

Myth in Communication

The object of this paper is to show how myth is used to communicate whole, as distinct from partial, perceptions of social situations. Certain definitions of myth are suggested. These are illustrated by two case studies which demonstrate the way in which myth is used as a means of communicating highly complex abstract ideas in an apparently simple concrete form. The paper ends with a brief review of the studies from different disciplines which have attempted to tackle this problem of the perception and communication of wholes.

The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives

THIS ARTICLE1 is directed toward a definition of myth, legend, and folktale. These three very basic terms in folklore are loosely used and have sometimes been as hotly disputed as the nature of folklore itself. Definitions and classifications are neither particularly interesting nor necessarily fruitful, but if any field of study needs clarification of its basic terminology it is clearly folklore, which has so long been plagued by inconsistent and contradictory definitions. This article will contribute nothing, however, if it does not lead to some agreement among folklorists on these terms, whatever definitions may ultimately be accepted. I make no claim to originality in the definitions proposed here. On the contrary, one of the main arguments in support of them is that they conform to what students of the folklore of both nonliterate and European societies have found, as will be shown. I have found them meaningful in some twenty years of teaching and they seem so obvious and self-evident that I can only wonder at the disagreements which have arisen. Less conventional, but certainly not without precedent, is the proposal that these three important forms of folklore be considered as sub-types of a broader form class, the prose narrative. This provides a system of classification in which they constitute a single category, defined in terms of form alone, comparable to the form classes of proverbs, riddles, and other genres of verbal art.2 Prose narrative, I propose, is an appropriate term for the widespread and important category of verbal which includes myths, legends, and folktales. These three forms are related to each other in that they are narratives in prose, and this fact distinguishes them from proverbs, riddles, ballads, poems, tongue-twisters, and other forms of verbal on the basis of strictly formal characteristics. Prose narrative is clearly less equivocal for this broad category than because the latter has so often been used by folklorists to mean Mdrchen. Its adoption permits us to equate the English term folktale with the German term Mdrchen, as I do here, and thus to dispense with the latter. Many American folklorists, to be sure, employ the term Mdrchen in English because they use to include all of these three sub-types, but this is unnecessary, since prose narrative better serves this purpose. When the term prose narrative proves clumsy or inept, I suggest that be used as a synonym; this is admittedly more ambiguous, but one can appropriately speak of myths, legends, and folktales as tales, and its counterpart in German, Erzdhlung, is similarly used. I cannot recall how long I have been using the term prose narrative in my folklore course; but when or by whom it was introduced is of less significance than the recent trend towards its acceptance. Boggs used prose narrative to include myth, legend, and tale in his article on folklore classification (I949),3 it has also been used in this sense by Davenport in discussing Marshallese folklore (I953), and by Berry in discussing West African spoken art (I96I). Folklore as Prose Narrative is the title of the second chapter of the Clarkes' recent text book (I963) . One may also cite the Herskovitses'