The+Structural+Study+of+Myth

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SIS 705 Class Notes Claude Levi-Strauss “The Structural Study of Myth” By Eddy

**Synopsis:** Levi-Strauss' piece applies structural analysis to the study of myth. Levi-Strauss views modern (1953) anthropology as viewing myths as either “idle play” or simplistic philosophy. Levi-Strauss rejects these claims. Levi-Strauss also rejects claims that myths simply express universal human emotions. If this is so, why do people require such elaborate explanations?

Levi-Strauss points out the fundamental contradiction in myths: they are seen as having happened long ago, but are also timeless. It can explain the past, present and future all at once. It transcends the distinctions set forth by Saussure explanations of //langue// (structural) and //parole// (statistical) regarding language and speech acts. Myths use a third referent that combines the structural (timelessness of myths) and the statistical (happened long ago).

In modern societies, Levi-Strauss views politics as having largely replaced myth. He gives the example of the French Revolution in France. Although the Revolution can be places temporally in history, it also has a timeless, ahistorical quality. Levi-Strauss refers to this as a “double structure.”

Because of the structural aspects of myth, we can recognize myths in any culture, regardless of how unfamiliar we are with that culture.

Levi-Strauss also views myths “as language, functioning on an especially high level where meaning succeeds practically at 'taking off' from the linguistic ground on which it keeps rolling...” (315)

Levi-Strauss concludes this section by analyzing the Oedipus myth by extracting the “mythemes” from the story. Just as one would organize alike numbers in columns, Levi-Strauss does this with the story of Oedipus. He categorizes the themes in Oedipus into four separate columns (316).

**Discussion Points:** What are the distinctions between “myths” and “religion?” Levi-Strauss claims that we recognize myth in any culture, but perhaps some have trouble doing this in their own culture? i.e. Some people believe that the Earth was literally created on October 23, 4004 B.C. (...which is ridiculous as we know construction work always gets done in the summer!) When people chose to root myths so firmly in historical time, does this challenge the “timeless” notion of myths?

Did Levi-Strauss choose the Oedipus myth specifically to challenge the notions of Freud and psychoanalysis?

The notion that some politics can begin to resemble myth in that it can have both have taken place “a long time ago” and be in some senses “timeless” seems to be manifested most clearly (at least in this country) in the frequent discussions about the founding fathers and the constitution. While these were historical persons/events, have they also take on some element of myth over time?

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