Difference between revisions of "Mythème"

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[[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] defines the [[mytheme]] as the '''smallest, most succinct element of [[signification]] in a [[myth]]'''.  The [[mytheme]] grounds his [[structuralism|structuralist approach]] to [[wp:myth|myth criticism]], his [[structuralism|structural analysis]] of [[wp:myth|myths]].<ref>(cf. in particular «The Structural Study of Myth» (1955); Tristes tropiques (1955); Anthropologie structurale (1958); La pensée sauvage (1962); Les mythologiques, 4 vols. (1964-1971); and Anthropologie structurale deux (1973)).</ref>
 
[[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] defines the [[mytheme]] as the '''smallest, most succinct element of [[signification]] in a [[myth]]'''.  The [[mytheme]] grounds his [[structuralism|structuralist approach]] to [[wp:myth|myth criticism]], his [[structuralism|structural analysis]] of [[wp:myth|myths]].<ref>(cf. in particular «The Structural Study of Myth» (1955); Tristes tropiques (1955); Anthropologie structurale (1958); La pensée sauvage (1962); Les mythologiques, 4 vols. (1964-1971); and Anthropologie structurale deux (1973)).</ref>
  
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==Wikipedia==
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==Structuralism==
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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&mdash;"bundled" was [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]'s image&mdash; or linked in more complicated relationships, like a molecule in a compound. For example, the myths of [[wp:Adonis|Adonis]] and [[wp:Osiris|Osiris]] share several elements, leading some scholars to conclude that they share a source.  
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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.
  
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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|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>
 
This idea is somewhat disputed by [[Roman Jakobson]], who takes the mytheme to be a [[wp:concept|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>
  

Revision as of 06:54, 12 November 2006

Etmology

Mythème, a term in French coined by Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908- ) on mythe (v. article MYTHE)+ suffixe -ème «the smallest analyzable element» derived from the linguistic term phonème, «smallest distinctive unit of articulated speech», from the Greek *ςοντμα, «sound of the voice», cf. morphème (1921) English lexeme (1940), monème (Martinet, 1941).

Definitions

Claude Lévi-Strauss defines the mytheme as the smallest, most succinct element of signification in a myth. The mytheme grounds his structuralist approach to myth criticism, his structural analysis of myths.[1]

Structuralism

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 concept or phoneme which is without significance in itself but whose significance might be shown by sociological analysis.[2]


Phoneme

Lévi-Strauss coined the neologism by analogy to the phoneme (being the smallest unit of speech that can distinguish one statement from another statement, like the "d" versus the "b" in dog/bog). It's a faulty but useful analogy. It's faulty because a phoneme is itself meaningless, whereas a mytheme (understood as a sort of primary element of the mythic story) can be an event, for example, which is not meaningless in itself. It's useful because once the mythemes are identified, they can be aligned with other mythemes in particular kinds of arrangements (to other mythemes in time [diachronic] or to other mythemes in the same myth [synchronic], and so on). These arrangements are structures, hence the term "structuralism" to describe the overall process. Isolating the structures can reveal interesting things that have to do with many things from sociology to psychology.

See Also

References


  1. ↑ (cf. in particular «The Structural Study of Myth» (1955); Tristes tropiques (1955); Anthropologie structurale (1958); La pensée sauvage (1962); Les mythologiques, 4 vols. (1964-1971); and Anthropologie structurale deux (1973)).
  2. ↑ *Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1955. "The Structural study of myth" in Journal of American Folklore, 68 pp 428-444
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