The Narrative Dimension of a Political Myth
The article presents the contemporary social myth as a phenomenon that is realized at two levels -“archaic” and “conjunctural” (“instrumental”). At the “archaic” level, there are stable archetypes, images, mythologems, rituals that are developed mainly collectively, while at the “conjunctural” level, a kind of “mythology of ideas” is found - the results of a rational purposeful activity of individual mythmakers often appearing as ideologies. The political myth, understood as a kind of a social myth, dominates at the “conjunctural” level that expresses the interests of the political class. The specificity of the political myth is that this kind of myth constantly seeks to demonstrate its “archaic” roots while being located mainly at the “conjunctural” level. The danger and ambiguity of the consequences associated with the functioning of the political myth in society are noted; they are explained by the unpredictability of the activities of mythmakers and elites. The most important role in political mythmaking belongs to narratives. The author asks a question about the degree of the political myths' impact on society, primarily on the commemorative practices, and identifies a number of factors that determine the scale of this impact. Special attention is paid to the levels of narration; they are compared with the levels of a contemporary myth. The article emphasizes the decisive importance of the fact that all the levels of narration and myth have been completely implemented and successfully broadcast. The author believes that in the development of the system of narration there may occur conflicts between the “archaic” and “conjunctural” (“instrumental”) levels of the contemporary myth. The emergence of this internal conflict of the contemporary political myth is favored by the absence of the following organic combination: on the one hand, the elements of the “archaic” level of the myth, associated with traditional mythologems and classic plots, and, on the other hand, the elements of the “conjunctural” (“instrumental”) level, filled with ideas and meanings of mythmakers who are trying not to fall out of the changing political situation, the current agenda. Narratives can act as a primary means of gaining political myth internal organics. The storyline of the narrative, which is part of the myth, combines the archaic and the modern, the individual and the collective, the unique and the general. As a means of overcoming the conflict between the levels of the myth, narratives perform a function similar to Claude Levi-Strauss' myth. But now the place of the classical myth in the role of the mediator is taken by a rhetorical narrative figure which is included in the plot, in the outline.