Myth (The New Critical Idiom)

Myth (The New Critical Idiom), 9780415442848 (0415442842), Routledge, 2009

The word ‘myth’ is used so frequently that one can expect to come across it not only in most books on literary or cultural studies, but also in most forms of popular entertainment. The usage is often rather loose, however. In literary and cultural studies ‘myth’ is frequently used as synonymous with ‘ideology’, as in ‘the myth of progress’ or ‘the myth of the free individual’. In entertainment it is frequently used as synonymous with ‘fantasy’, as in ‘Enter the mythical world of Dungeons and Dragons!’ In either case, it is being used to imply some sort of illusion, whether one is an academic exposing the hidden agenda of a literary or cultural text, or one is a games manufacturer trying to attract customers. While it is true that there is some overlap between myth and ideology, and between myth and fantasy, it is not helpful to use them interchangeably. As I hope to show, there is a lot more to myth than deception or distraction. We will come to a provisional definition of ‘myth’ in due course, but let us first consider four kinds of narrative that can legitimately be described as mythic.

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