Mythical analog

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The mythical analogue is a term introduced into literary studies by Clemens Lugowski to characterize the relationship between humans and literary texts, which, in Lugowski's view, corresponds in some respects to the relationship between ancient people and their myths. Since the relationship between man - myth and man - literature is not the same in all parts, but also shows differences, both relationships, according to Lugowski, are not identical, but only analogous.

As an initial definition, the mythical analogue can be understood as the correspondence between literary form and myth, which results from the fact that a remnant of mythical thought is still manifested in the aesthetic structure of literary texts. This is particularly important in the context of modern narrative theory .

Lugowski's conception

Lugowski developed his theory of the mythical analogue in 1932 as part of his Göttingen dissertation, The Form of Individuality in the Novel, which was only celebrated much later by literary scholars . He draws on Ernst Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms and André Jolles ' simple forms , along with other works .

In his work, Lugowski starts with the basic assumption that the literature of the “post-mythical age” on the one hand prevented direct reference to mythical figures and stories of gods, but that at the same time the “content of the mythical” implicitly lives on in the formal laws of poetry. Mythical content is basically present in literature, but not recognizable at first glance, so it exists latently, so to speak, in a manner hidden from the superficial or uninitiated observer.

Lugowski relies on the observation that the meaning and function of the plot in the modern novel is ultimately nothing other than a mythical unit in secular clothing. In this agglomeration, the myth becomes history and education. In many literary texts, the plot already carries its fulfillment within itself - we know, for example, that the wicked stepmother will find her just end and the brave princess will eventually become queen.

Lugowski connects to this the question "How is the existence of the human being understood as a poetic-figurative individual existence in the course of time, and how is it interpreted in poetry?"

To answer this question, Lugowski goes back to Friedrich Nietzsche's work The Birth of Tragedy and, building on this, comes to the conclusion that the national community in ancient Greece was based on “myth-bearing common ground in the face of the tragic game”, whereby the tragic game “repeatedly the old topics deeply rooted in popular consciousness ”. The specific relationship between the people of antiquity and myth remained unique later on and was therefore not to be found in "any nation in the post-medieval West".

However - according to Lugowski - a relationship between people and poetry can be established in the post-mythical period, which contains a mythical component and is therefore comparable to the attitude of the ancient Greeks towards the mythical subjects of their tragedies. However, this relationship is only analogous and not identical, since the relationship of post-mythical man to poetry also shows serious differences to the relationship of man of the mythical era to myth: For example, post-mythical man lacks the religious reference to poetry that man of antiquity to myths have had.

According to Lugowski, a prerequisite for access to a literary work is acceptance of the “made-up” of the work in question, as the awareness that the work in question is a product of “artificiality”. If it is not possible to accept the artificiality of a work, this work must remain closed. For this reason, people would find something in common with myth in “accepting” the artificiality of poetry. This commonality would find its limit in the fact that "besides (the insightful) there are also those who do not understand".

The artificiality of poetry is that of its characteristics which most successfully evades analytical reflection:

“Like the heroic myth in Attic tragedy, artificiality is also a force that establishes common ground. In spite of everything, it (artificiality) is not a myth: in future we will speak of it as a mythical analogue. "

literature

  • Herwig Gottwald: Traces of Myth in Modern German-Language Literature. Theoretical models and case studies . Wuerzburg 2007.
  • Clemens Lugowski: The form of individuality in the novel . Frankfurt am Main 1994.
  • Katrin Stepath: Contemporary Concepts - a philosophical-literary analysis of temporal structures , Würzburg 2006, pp. 180-185.

Remarks

  1. On these influences, for example, Heinz Schlaffer , Clemens Lugowski's contribution to the discipline of literary studies , in: Clemens Lugowski, Die Form der Individualität im Roman , Frankfurt am Main 1994, pp. VII – XXIV, here pp. X – XII.