One of the main concerns of hylistics is the study of myths – not as texts but as the narrative material in or behind texts, images, movies, plays and pantomimes etc.
At the core of hylistic myth research are the following observations:
- Myths as narrative materials exist in a transmedial way (transmediality), i.e. they can be used in different media.
- Myths as narrative materials are characterised by sequences of events that imply change.
This presents the following challenges:
- How can myths as transmedial phenomena be analysed if they are to be reconstructed from their media concretisations?
- How can myths be adequately compared when they manifest themselves in so many different media?
Hylistics helps to define, reconstruct, analyse, and compare myths as narrative materials. Such a reconstruction, description and comparison can be achieved by referring to the minimal state- or action-bearing units of narratives or events in general, the hylemes.
Definition of “myth”
The following definition of “myth” (see C. Zgoll 2020, 75 f; for a discussion of the problems of defining myth and for a discussion of other positions, see in more detail C. Zgoll 2019, 557–563) was developed and discussed over a long period of time in the context of several interdisciplinary research networks and can serve as a starting point for the following characteristics of myths:
A myth can be defined as a narrative material which is polymorphic through its variants and – depending on the variant – polystratic; a narrative in which transcending interpretations of what can be experienced are combined into a hyleme sequence with an implicit claim to relevance for the interpretation and mastering of the human condition.
Other selected attempts at definition:
- „Textsorte“ (Irsigler 2013, 2.2.1); „literarische Gattung“ (Lux 2014, 196)
- „eine wahre, gelebte Geschichte“ (Mohn 1998, 62)
- „ideology in narrative form“ (Lincoln 1999, XII)
- „traditionelle, bedeutsame Erzählungen“ (Burkert 1993, 18; vgl. Graf 1985, 7)
- „traditionelle Erzählungen“ (see Kirk 1980, 20: „traditionelle Geschichten“ and others)
- „in sich selbst bedeutsame Geschichten“ (see Blumenberg 1984, 165 and others)
- „a narrative which is considered socially important“ (Csapo 2005, 9)
- „genau die Geschichten …, die immer Mythen genannt werden, ohne dass wir wissen, warum“ (Powell 2009, 16)
- „We know a Greek myth when we see one and have need of no definitions … to identify it as such” (Dowden/ Livingstone 2011, 3)
References:
Blumenberg, H., 1984, Arbeit am Mythos, 3., erneut durchges. Aufl., Frankfurt am Main (1. Aufl. 1979, Ndr. 2006).
Burkert, W., 1993, „Mythos – Begriff, Struktur, Funktionen“, in: Graf, F. (Hg.), Mythos in mythenloser Gesellschaft. Das Paradigma Roms, Colloquium Rauricum Bd. 3, Stuttgart/ Leipzig, 9-24.
Csapo, E., 2005, Theories of Mythology, „Ancient Cultures“ Series, Malden/ Oxford.
Dowden, K./ Livingstone, N. (Hg.), 2011, A Companion to Greek Mythology, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World, Malden/ Oxford (Ndr. 2014).
Graf, F., 1985, Griechische Mythologie. Eine Einführung, Düsseldorf (Ndr. Düsseldorf 2004).
Irsigler, H., 2013, „Mythos“, in: WiBiLex, Zugriffsdatum: 8.10.2015, Perma-Link: http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/stichwort/28261/.
Kirk, G.S., 1980, Griechische Mythen. Ihre Bedeutung und Funktion, aus dem Englischen von R. Schein, Wien (Ndr. Reinbek 1987; engl. Orig. The Nature of Greek Myths, London 1974).
Lincoln, B., 1999, Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship, Chicago.
Lux, R., 2014, „Die Rache des Mythos. Überlegungen zur Rezeption des Mythischen im Alten Testament“, in: Lux, R., Ein Baum des Lebens, hg. von Berlejung, A./ Heckl, R., Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 23, Tübingen, 193-218.
Mohn, J., 1998, Mythostheorien. Eine religionswissenschaftliche Untersuchung zu Mythos und Interkulturalität, München.
Powell, B.B., 2009, Einführung in die klassische Mythologie, übers. und bearb. von B. Reitz, unter Mitarbeit von A. Behrendt, Stuttgart/ Weimar (amerik. Orig.: A short introduction to classical myth, New Jersey 2002).
Zgoll, C. 2019, Tractatus mythologicus. Theorie und Methodik zur Erforschung von Mythen als Grundlegung einer allgemeinen, transmedialen und komparatistischen Stoffwissenschaft, Mythological Studies 1, Berlin / Boston. (Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110541588)
Zgoll, C. 2020, Myths as Polymorphous and Polystratic Erzählstoffe: A Theoretical and Methodological Foundation, in: A. Zgoll / C. Zgoll (ed.), Mythische Sphärenwechsel. Methodisch neue Zugänge zu antiken Mythen in Orient und Okzident, Mythological Studies 2, Berlin / Boston, 9-82. (Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110652543-002)