Mythic Imagination Research Articles

Excavating Myth and Memory in Congressional Papers

ABSTRACT Congressional papers constitute some of the most unique archival collections to find their way into American repositories. Often voluminous, complex, and appended by donor stipulations and financial considerations, they have been the subject of decades’ worth of archival conferences, scholarship, legislation, and practical manuals. These discussions have long upheld the belief that congressional papers retain inherent research and historic value, largely due to their documentation of legislative processes and topical subject areas. This article interrogates the origins of that presumptive value, positing that archivists have customarily drawn on traditional narratives of American identity and democratic governance to justify and inform the acquisition, appraisal, processing, and deployment of congressional collections. The article first reviews the robust history of the congressional papers community, surveying the evolution of rhetoric around archivists’ assignation of inherent value to congressional papers and critically examining the ways in which that value is shaped by American practices of myth-making. Drawing from memory studies and concepts of the mythic imagination, the article then problematizes the passivity of American democracy in congressional archival praxis, taking into account burgeoning national reckonings and re-reckonings with the nature of American government itself. Implicating archival praxis in the perpetuation of narratives that do not reflect or represent the current state of the nation, the article then suggests modes of alternative intervention for archivists working with congressional papers, calling for a critically contextual reimagining of the field.

The journeys of Orpheus

AbstractThe figure of Orpheus has been and continues to be the subject of in-depth studies focusing mainly on the historical, religious (relative especially to Orphism), and then iconographic aspects (the representation of Orpheus and typical moments of mythical imagination that concern him). It may be interesting here to draw a precise map of places visited by Orpheus, alive but also once killed, through his prophetic head and lyre. This paper also aims to present the iconographic itinerary of the journeys of the Thracian singer between Ancient and Modern times.

Narratives of Indigenous Resistance in North-Western Siberia in the 1930s

The paper discusses official and Indigenous views of the Khanty and Forest Nenets uprising against the Soviets, known as the Kazym War (1931–1934). The rebellion is well documented in archival sources and covered by scholarly research, popular essays, and novels. Almost a century after the uprising, Indigenous narratives about the uprising are still circulating in local communities. Specifically, this paper addresses selected episodes of the Kazym War reflected both in official and Indigenous narratives. I focus on the analysis of diverse modes of narrating hybrid knowledge produced in a contact zone, and the mythic imagination of shamans shaping narratives about the uprising. Here, I argue that perceptions of Indigenous history sometimes adopt and reproduce the dominant discourse about the uprising, but link to the official story predominantly by rejecting it and establishing autonomous discussions. Keywords: Khanty, Forest Nenets, Indigenous, uprising, narratives, shaman

Erotics of War and Sovereignty in Iris Murdoch’s The Red and the Green

In The Red and the Green the Irish writer Iris Murdoch creates a narrative universe that focuses on the Easter Rising of 1916, one of the most tumultuous turns in twentieth century Irish history, and introduces a rich web of moral conflicts and dilemmas experienced by members of an Anglo-Irish community in Dublin. The main concern of this article is to introduce a reading of Murdoch’s The Red and the Green in the context of the mythopoetic discourse of the Easter Rising of 1916, which predominantly reflected the nationalist rhetoric of the Irish Revivalist Movement, and to show how Murdoch revisualizes recent Irish history through her own cultural origins. The argument is grounded on the premise that Millie features in the novel as the embodiment of the feminine archetype and symbolic representation of the Erotic in stark contrast to the war rhetoric of the Easter Rising that relies heavily on the desexualized, romanticized and idealized versions of the feminine in Celtic mythic imagination. Millie’s feminine archetypal image and her symbolic representation of Eros distorts and shakes the masculine rhetoric of the Rising. As a response to the desexualized, sterile, and therefore displaced representations of the Sovereignty Goddess in the literature of the Irish Revival, Murdoch introduces a critical ethos in the novel by restoring the essence of this feminine element in the portrayal of Millie, the central character around whom the plot largely revolves.

Visual Myths

Is visual communication primarily contingent upon physical elements to be seen with the eye, or does visuality also extend into the imagination? Despite the progress of modernity since the Enlightenment, a different form of thinking exists that is predicated upon visual metaphors and mythic structures. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to unfold the position of thinking visually to the realm of religious beliefs emanating from ancient oral cultures who often created connections of natural, rhetorical objects with the metaphysical through the mythic imagination. Throughout this paper, the author analyzes three ekphrastic texts concerning visions of God's glory at the Tabernacle, Jerusalem Temple, and in the person of Jesus within Judeo-Christian thought. This research will analyze such visual thinking through Biblical teachings that demonstrate various forms of ekphrasis (Grk. “speak out”) in which specific verbal descriptions represent interaction between physical and divine planes and thus contiguity.

The Mythical Absolute: The Fiction of Being

Abstract The concept of “conceptual personae” is a contradiction in terms. On one sense of the term, personae are the characters in a work of art, such as a play or a novel. As characters, they are not common terms – King Lear is a particular; he is not a universal, for he cannot be shared in common. However, concepts are quite unlike King Lear. As universals, they are common terms that can be shared in common. “Conceptual personae” renders the particular universal and thereby declares the universal not to be universal. However, I argue that as long as philosophers maintain a traditional attitude toward conceptual truth, philosophers will not be able to successfully think the structure of being without appealing to the mythical imagination, of which conceptual personae form an essential constituent.

Reconstruction of Mythic Imagination, Modern Identity, and Cross-media Exploration

With the release of Legend of Deification, COLOROOM Pictures Company has made further progress in the construction of the Mythic Universe. Two films, NeZha: Birth of the Demon Child and Legend of Deification, have subversively rewritten and reconstructed the mythic imagination in China, combining the strengthening self-concept and reflection on the social survival dilemma, which is in line with the current social context and audience expectations. The film pays attention to the realistic portrayal, touches the nerves of the times, and arouses the audience's intense recognition with the slogan “I’m the master of my own destiny”. Their cross-media communication modes also make the two films a hit. However, the barriers and obstacles encountered in the communication are also worthy of reflection in the current domestic animated films.

Tay Nguyen University

In M’nong epics (Ot Ndrong), symbolic characters appear with a dense frequency and dominates all aspects of human life; it is a life simulation of ancient M'nong people, through the prism of mythological thinking. Spirits in Ot Ndrong have no absolute authority and do not dwell in a holy place at all. If in Iliat, spirits dwells on the top of Olympia and have divided the split rank, in Ot Ndrong, which spirits are innocent, simple, close to people's lives. In Ot Ndrong, between spirits and humans there has not already been such a strict limit on the heroic songs of Homer. Charms and ghosts have a very important role in the structure of Ot Ndrong plot. This is a product of mythical imagination but M'nong people believe that it is real. Charms appear in Ot Ndrong as a magic, it is a means of spiritual experience for some of the characters performing their wishes.

A Study of the Mythical Imagination Embodied in Modern Poetry

이 논문은 이재무, 나희덕, 안도현 등 세 시인의 시를 통해 인간과 자연의 관계, 시인의 역할, 신화적 상상력을통한 신화 세계의 시적 형상화를 살펴보았다. 코로나 19 바이러스 창궐로 인류가 고통받고 있는 이 시대는 인간과 자연의 관계를 다시 생각해 보도록 요구한다. 오래전 신화 속 신들이 그랬듯이 시인은 시를 통해 신과 인간, 자연이 만나서 하나가 되도록 만들어 준다. 시를 포함한 예술적 행위와 창작물은 신의 모방, 또는 신과 일체화되고자 하는 인간의 염원을 표현하는 것이다. 신에게 다다르기 위한, 신을 꿈꾸는 인간의 행위가 예술이라면 예술가의 영감과 재능은 역시 인간과 하나가 되고자 하는 신이 인간에게 부여한 선물인지도 모른다. 결국 시인이 시를쓰는 일은 신이 준 재능으로 인간과 자연, 신이 하나가 되기를 기원하는 제의라 할 수 있다. 인류가 기후 위기와팬데믹으로 고통받고 있는 이 시대에 시적 감성이 더욱 소중한 이유이다. 위 세 시인이 시 속에 표현한 세계를 통해 팬데믹의 시대를 건너갈 수 있는 사상적 방법론을 생각해 볼 수 있을 것이다.

Repressive Mythologies: Defensive Nostalgia in Ishiguro, McEwan and Ondaatje

ABSTRACT This article argues that the three novels under discussion demonstrate a critique of British nostalgia for an idealist past that may not have been real. This nostalgia can be interpreted as a defense against social and ideological changes taking place, both when the novels are set (around WWII) and when they were written. Brexit can be seen as one more recent expression of this nostalgia. The article focuses on three aspects of defensive nostalgia: the fetish, the quality of masking reality and finally, the function of the mythical imagination in the writing process. The first is exemplified in Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, the second in Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight and the third in Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Freud and Marx, largely, underpin much of the argument, in which the characters are shown to be unable to extricate themselves from fetishizing their respective pasts, turning them into mythical tropes and using those tropes as masks to hide, even from themselves, the uncomfortable realities they don’t wish to face.

『앨비언의 딸들의 환상』에서 윌리엄 블레이크의 신화적 상상력

『앨비언의 딸들의 환상』에서 윌리엄 블레이크의 신화적 상상력

Yalmavuz Neden Öfkelendi?

Masal, onu yaratan toplumun kültürel kodlarını barındıran bir türdür. Farklılaşan ve değişen şartlara rağmen Türk dünyası masalları birçok ortak unsur barındırmaktadır. “Yalmavuz” bu ortak unsurlardan biridir. Türk dünyası masalları içinde ortak olan bu unsur genellikle “Yedi Başlı Dev” motifi şeklinde masallarda varlığını devam ettirmiştir. Kökeni mitik döneme dayanan Yalmavuz, masallarda dev anası şeklinde yaşamaya devam etmiştir. Yalmavuz genellikle yedi başlı, yaşlı ve çirkin bir kadın olarak tasvir edilmiştir. Masallarda kahraman yola çıkar, yolda ateşi söner ya da söndürülür. Ateşi aramaya çıkarken Yalmavuz’a rastlar. Yalmavuz ona ateş verir. Karşılığında onun pişirdiği bütün yemekleri yer. Masal kahramanı ile Yalmavuz dövüşür, Yalmavuz yer altına kaçar. Kahraman yer altına iner ve Yalmavuz’u öldürür. Ateşin kaybedilmesi Türk dünyası masallarının ortak motiflerinden biridir. Türk mitik tasavvurunda yaratılan her varlığın bir iyesi vardır. Masallarda ateşin Yalmavuz’un elinde olması onun ateşin koruyucu iyesi olduğunu gösterir. Yalmavuz bütün anlatılarda kadın olarak tasvir edilmiştir. Kökeni anaerkil döneme dayanan Yalmavuz, ateşin koruyucusu olan bir kadın iyedir. Türk mitik tasavvurundaki iyelerin genel özelliği koruyucu olmalarıdır. Fakat kendilerine gerekli özen gösterilmediği zaman öfkelenip insanları cezalandırabilmektedirler. “Umay Ana” kadın ve çocukların koruyucu iyesidir. Genellikle Umay Ana koruyucu iye olarak kalmıştır. Bazı kadın iyeler ise kötüye evirilmiştir. Yalmavuz kötüye evirilen iyelerden biridir.Bu çalışmada “Ateşin koruyucu iyesi olan Yalmavuz neden masallarda demonik bir varlık olarak yer almıştır, Türk dünyası masallarından hareketle Yalmavuz demonik bir varlık mı yoksa kendisine gerekli saygı gösterilmediği için öfkelenen ve cezalandıran bir iye midir?” sorularına cevap aranacaktır.

Echoes of the Infernal Machine: 1940s French and English Literature of Resistance and Collaboration as a Revolution in the Mythic Imagination

This article comparatively examines French and English literature based on two novels published in 1947, Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano and Jean-Louis Curtis’ The Forests of Night. Both novels employ the mythic device to construct narratives on the twilight of the British Empire and the German occupied French Vichy regime, respectively, depicting experiences of resistance and collaboration on the eve of and during the Second World War. Both invent a system of symbolic imagery modelled on the Surrealist template in Jean Cocteau’s The Infernal Machine, that turns the classical mythic device still prevalent in the early 20th century (i.e. in Joyce or Eliot) upside down. The revolution in Mythic Imagination follows the Structuralist Revolution initiated by Durkheim, Saussure and Bachelard, evacuating fixed ontological architecture to portray relational interdependency without essence. These novels pursue overlapping ethical investigations, on “non-interventionism” in Lowry and “fraternity” in Curtis. The novels raise questions about the relation between colonialism and fascism and the impact of non-Western mythic universes (i.e. Hinduism) upon the Mythic Imagination. They have implications for our understanding of gender relations, as well as the value of political activism and progress.

Superheroes and the mythic imagination: order, agency and politics

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between superhero comics and myth. It argues that traditional approaches to myth see it as a deeply conservative form, and applying it to the superhero genre makes the comics seem more conservative than they are. This also is inadequate if we are to understand the politics of superhero comics, which is currently focussed on issues of representation and diversity, something that is in turn being contested by reactionary forces collected under the name ‘Comicsgate’. To understand what is happening we need to challenge the conservative view of myth seen in the writing of Eco and Reynolds, and supplement this with a generative view of myth found in the work of Cassirer, Castoriardis, and Bloch. Here, myth is actually integral to the creation of a world. It is what enables us to make sense of the things around us and find our place. If these myths are no longer circulated or our challenged our place in the world is also threatened. To understand how this is worked out today I finally apply Barthes work on myth to Chelsea Cain’s run on Mockingbird to show how the comic challenged the myth and the ideology of patriarchy.

한국과 베트남 문화에 나타난 고래 신화와 관음신앙의 해양 신화 상상력 비교 연구

본 연구는 한국과 베트남 문화를 상호 이해하기 위해 한국과 베트남 고래신앙의 해양 신화 상상력과 관음 신앙의 불교 상상력을 비교 고찰하고자 한다. 특히 두 나라에 공통적으로 보이고 있는 고래신앙과 관음신앙 상상력의 비교 연구를 통해 각 나라의 민간신앙과 종교적 상상력을 상호 비교해 보고자 하였다. 한국의 〈삼국유사(三國遺事)〉와 베트남의 〈영남척괴열전(嶺南拓怪列傳)〉은 대표적인 신화서인데, 이 두 신화서의 비교를 통해 신화가 생성되는 문화적 욕망을 살피고 두 나라간 상호 이해의 디딤돌을 다지고자 했다. 첫째, 한국 동해안의 고래 신앙과 베트남 동해안의 고래신앙은 일부 유사성과 차이성을 가진다. 한국의 동해안의 고래신앙과 베트남 동해안의 고래신앙에서 각 나라의 문화와 종교가 어떠한 문화 교섭 양상을 보여주고 있는지 살펴보았다. 둘째, 한국의 관음신앙에 대한 상상력과 베트남 중부의 해수관음에 대한 상상력을 비교해 보았다. 한국의 관음사상은 동해안, 서해안, 남해안 등에서 두루 나타나고 있는 불교의 모성적 자비의 상상력이 보이는데 베트남의 북부와 중부에 걸쳐서 이러한 해수관음 사상이 비슷하게 보이고 있다. 두 나라는 대승불교의 영향권 아래에 있는 나라들이기 때문에 유사한 점이 많다. 두 나라의 고래신앙과 관음신앙의 비교분석을 통해 한국과 베트남의 해양 신화 상상력이 종교 상상력을 어떻게 받아들이면서 교섭 형성되는지 살펴보고자 하였다. 본고는 이러한 문화적 공통점의 상호비교를 통해 한국의 다문화 이주 여성의 많은 비율을 차지하는 베트남 이주 여성의 문화를 단순한 언어소통이 아니라 심층적인 문화 이해의 초석으로 삼고자 하였다.

남미 원주민의 ‘불’ 관련 구비설화에서의 ‘불 탈취’ 의미와 문화기원에 대한 신화적 상상력의 층위

본 논문은 남아메리카 원주민의 ‘불’ 관련 구비설화에 나타난 서사구조, 불에 대한 인식, ‘불 탈취’의 신화적 의미, 문화기원과 관련한 신화적 상상력의 층위 등을 분석한 것이다. 남미 원주민의 불 설화는 대립적, 단계적, 위계역전의 구조로 구성되어 있으며, 이들은 상호 연계성을 지향하고 있다. 대립적 사고와 관련하여, ‘불’은 신성하고 마법적인 재산으로서의 속성을 갖고 있으며, 그러한 속성은 ‘불을 소유하지 않은 인간’과 ‘불을 소유한 동물/자연’을 절대적으로 구분하는 기준으로써 작동되고 있다. 단계적 사고와 관련하여, 최초불(First Fire)이 인간의 영역으로 옮겨지기까지의 단계에서 동물이 주된 역할을 하고 있다. 위계역전의 사고와 관련하여, 최초에 불을 갖고 있던 동물은 불을 잃고 동물 영역에 머물게 되며, ‘인간-동물’은 불을 소유함으로써 자연 상태의 동물 단계에서 벗어나 인간만의 영역에 머물게 된다. 이런 점들을 고려할 때, 남미 ‘불’ 관련 설화에서의 주된 특징인 ‘불 탈취’는 자연 속에 숨겨져 있는 문화적 산물의 공유를 시도하기 위한 행위로써의 의미를 갖는다. 자연 속에 이미 문화적인 것이 마련되어 있다고 전제함으로써 자연은 ‘인간 문화의 기원’ 그 자체가 되고 있는 것이다. 그런 점에서 남미 ‘불’ 관련 구비설화에서의 불에 대한 신화적 상상력은 동물과 인간, 그리고 자연과 문화의 비분절적(非分節的) 지향을 전제함으로써 태동된 것임을 알 수 있다.

Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth by Ariadne Konstantinou

Reviewed by: Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth by Ariadne Konstantinou Kate Gilhuly Ariadne Konstantinou. Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth. Bloomsbury Classical Studies Monographs. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2018. Pp. xiii, 189. $102.00. ISBN 978-1-4742-5676-6. In this monograph, Ariadne Konstantinou initiates a discussion about gender and mobility, building on the spatial turn in Greek literary analysis. She interprets passages where females in myth are represented as moving through space, exploring what their mobility can tell us about gender ideology. Returning to Vernant’s reading of the immovable Hestia, she preserves the structuralist model of thinking about gods (and mortals) as part of a larger system in which meaning is defined through relationships; but she responds to criticism of this approach by paying close attention to individual articulations in texts, considering the historical context in which these representations were produced. The strength of this approach is that it points to a wide array of modes of female mobility in a variety of contexts; and yet her conclusions would be enhanced by a more sophisticated engagement with gender theory. The book is divided into two parts, the first treating goddesses in archaic representations and the second looking at heroines in predominantly fifth-century Athenian texts. Chapter 1 explores the mobility of the three virgin goddesses, [End Page 232] Hestia, Athena, and Artemis as represented in archaic literature. Konstantinou notes that Hestia has a centering and static relationship to space, while Artemis roams the mountainous spaces of the hunt, and Athena flies in a chariot, concluding that divine virginity does not entail immobility or seclusion. The second chapter then examines Homeric depictions of the mobility of Olympian wives and mothers. Again, Konstantinou notes a plurality of female mobilities: Aphrodite travels for the purpose of seduction, Demeter roams the earth in search of Persephone, and Hera at times sends others on errands, not as a reflection of limited mobility, but rather as an effect of her status among the gods. Because epic poetry represents a spectrum of female mobility, Konstantinou determines that the mobility of goddesses is more reflective of their divinity than their gender. This conclusion misses the opportunity to illuminate a more nuanced perception of gender where a range of feminine, or unfeminine, behaviors, is given spatiality through images of movement: so, e.g., Athena’s driving Hera in a chariot to war characterizes Athena as a masculine goddess, and Hera’s gender as less transgressive. Wherever gender is represented, the ideology of gender is being communicated. The various types of travel that Konstantinou considers contribute to the depiction of different instantiations of femininity. Chapter 3 in part 2 focuses on Io and the Danaids in Prometheus Bound and the Supplices. It introduces the distinction between images of centrifugal and centripetal movement, as females move as brides from father’s to husband’s house and to and from Egypt. Konstantinou suggests that the Danaids’ movement into Argos is depicted as a return to homeland, and raises the interesting possibility that this centripetal travel may be read as a bid to become part of “to hellenikon.” Chapter 4 turns to the mobility of maenads and huntresses, with a compelling reading of space in Euripides’ Bacchae. Konstantinou notes the blurring of distinctions between city and mountain, the ritual gendering of the mountain space, and the personification of Thebes as maenad as the result of the Dionysiac experience. The analysis of the two groups of maenads suggests that the purpose of the sub-groups of maenads might reflect female mobility as women leave their houses to participate in ritual, so that Euripides’ text simultaneously reflects myth and ritual practice. Konstantinou then turns to images of the huntress in tragedy, noting that these depictions are more concerned with the space of the hunt than its practice, which highlights a gender discrepancy. Chapter 5 introduces the feminist image of the glass wall to describe the limits of female mobility in the Greek mythic imagination. Women move out and “beyond,” but never into a public or political space. Here Konstantinou relates her study to contemporary feminist discourse, observing that mobility needs to be accompanied by...

Mythical Imagination and Myth Rewriting Method in Korean Contempory Dramas- Focusing on Abi the Great and The Sensation of the Wife

Mythical Imagination and Myth Rewriting Method in Korean Contempory Dramas- Focusing on Abi the Great and The Sensation of the Wife

G. K. Chesterton Essaying Myth

Some of G. K. Chesterton’s most potent myths do not extend beyond a sentence or two—a fact that has been overlooked in studies of his mythic imagination. Chesterton showed great interest in the larger metaphysical and theological implications of myth throughout his career in works from The Ballad of the White Horse to The Everlasting Man; however, he also engaged in weaving “lesser myths” that seem to have only a distant connection to the “Christian Mythopoeic Imagination” so often traced in his work. These lesser myths are more playful, whimsical, and even pagan in that they do not seem to rest on a believed metaphysical or theological truth. This article, drawing on Chesterton’s essayistic canon, shapes a picture of Chesterton’s mythic imagination, taking into account these “sentence-level myths.” It shows that Chesterton’s myth making is both smaller and larger than has yet been allowed. It also suggests that criticism of Chesterton’s work will benefit from treating these lesser myths as unique formal moments with their own meaning-making potential before affixing them to some larger Christian truth-myth framework.

To Smile and Not to Smile

This article examines the role of smiling as a performative gesture at the northeast border between Russia and China. It argues that the border is a place where ‘myth’ in the sense proposed by Roland Barthes is manifest in the comportment of people when they see themselves as representing the civilization of one side or the other. In this situation, smiling and not smiling are elements of particular communicative registers that enact political myths in life. Highly gendered, these agentiveperformative gestures exist amid other functional and affective registers, which can override them. The article also discusses the ‘helpers’ who mediate in cross-border trade, whose image is also sometimes subject to mythic imagination.