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Mythème

181 bytes removed, 05:35, 12 November 2006
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In the study of [[wp:mythology|mythology]], a '''mytheme''' is an irreducible nugget of myth, an unchanging element, not unlike a cultural meme, one that is always found shared with other, related mythemes and reassembled in various ways—"bundled" was [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]'s image— or linked in more complicated relationships, like a molecule in a compound. For example, the myths of [[wp:Adonis]] and [[wp:Osiris|Osiris]] share several elements, leading some scholars to conclude that they share a source.
The cataloguer of folk tales [[Vladimir Propp]] considered that the unit of analysis was the individual tale: the unitary mytheme by contrast is the equivalent in myth of the [[wp:phoneme]]s, [[wp:morpheme]]s and [[wp:sememe]]s into which [[Linguistics|structural linguistics]] divides language: the smallest possible units of meaning within a language system.
 
In the 1950s [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] first adapted this technique of language analysis to analytic myth criticism. In his work on the myth systems of primitive tribes, working from the analogy of language structure, he adopted the term ''mythème'', with the assertion that the system of meaning within mythic utterances parallels closely that of a language system.
This idea is somewhat disputed by [[Roman Jakobson]], who takes the mytheme to be a [[wp:concept]] or phoneme which is without significance in itself but whose significance might be shown by [[wp:sociology|sociological]] analysis.<ref>*Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1955. "The Structural study of myth" in ''Journal of American Folklore'', '''68''' pp 428-444</ref>
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Neologism coined by The cataloguer of folk tales [[Levi-StraussVladimir Propp]] considered that the unit of analysis was the individual tale: the unitary mytheme by analogy with contrast is the equivalent in myth of the [[wp:phoneme]]s, and used to describe the elementary units employed in the [[structuralism|structural analysiswp:morpheme]] of s and [[wp:mythsememe]]sinto which [[Linguistics|structural linguistics]] divides language: the smallest possible units of meaning within a language system.
Like [[Saussure]]'s [[sign]]s, [[mytheme]] are created by binary or ternary oppositions and are analogous with the functions identified by [[Propp]] in his morphology of the folk tale.[[Mytheme]]s are to be identified with functions, and not with the characters of mythical tales.-->
In the 1950s [[MythemeClaude Lévi-Strauss]]s are first adapted this technique of language analysis to be identified with functionsanalytic myth criticism. In his work on the myth systems of primitive tribes, working from the analogy of language structure, he adopted the term ''mythème'', and not with the characters assertion that the system of mythical talesmeaning within mythic utterances parallels closely that of a language system.This idea is somewhat disputed by [[Roman Jakobson]], who takes the mytheme to be a [[wp:concept]] or phoneme which is without significance in itself but whose significance might be shown by [[wp:sociology|sociological]] analysis.<ref>*Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1955. "The Structural study of myth" in ''Journal of American Folklore'', '''68''' pp 428-444</ref>
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