C-CS

myth
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Working Definition:

A MYTH IS:

(1): a narrative

(a story told by someone to someone through some medium such as a novel, film, poem, dream or tv program)

(2) which is repeated frequently,

(the story is not the creation of one individual
it is a part of the culture
it is "legendum"
hence its characteristic feature is repetition

(3) which serves as a model for behavior

-the underlying sequence of acts is a model
the concrete details of the story--names, places, clothes, furniture, weapons, etc .--are not a clue to the mythic dimension of a narrative-models of actions are, in effect, "strategies" for solving problems--they are possible ways of being in the world

(4) that reinforces existing cultural institutions

(the model for behavior represents subject position in an already existing institution such as marriage or the advocacy system in law

--either negatively or positively)

(5) and which is an expression of belief in a specific way of life as a solution to one of life's problems

(we do not need myths to deal with what we already understand but rather to cope with problems that we do not yet understand--such as death. In the face of the unknown, we rely on unproven beliefs not facts, especially when faced with situations in which we have to act without any secure sense that what we will solve the human problem we confront. Thus, myth is often contrasted to science. Whereas science deals with beliefs that can be treated as true or false, myths are neither. In this sense, myths are not restricted to primitive cultures.)

Disciplinary Definitions:

Mythography, the description of myths, often with an accompanying commentary is often used in the narrow sense of a system of notation which does not use words but images or objects. In their Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Science of Language Ducrot and Todorov give the following example of mythographic communication: "in Sumatra, the Loutsou declare war by sending a piece of notched wood along with a feather, a chunk of ember, and a fish; this signifies that they will attack with as many hundred (or thousand) men as there are notches, will be as swift as a bird (represented by the feather), will devastate everything (the ember), and will drown their enemies (the fish)" (193). In the broader sense, mythography is the description of myth. Boccaccio, for instance, who spent his declining years studying classical mythology, described himself as a mythographer. In CR the two sense of mythography are combined. I am concerned with the pictographic (or "configural") impact of words.

See Dan McAdams, The Stories We Live By

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