The Rehabilitation of Myth in the Epoch of Romanticism
In the spotlight of the article is the attitude to myth in the epoch of Romanticism when the disappointment in the possibilities of mind took place leading to appeal to myth as the means of exposure of essence of man and society. The myth became a factor of resolution of the contradiction between the person’s rich inner world and the social reality not meeting the high requirements of justice. The actualizing of hero’s figure was an important symptom of the revival of interest in myth, and the hero’s behaviour differed from what is expected from the hero of a myth: the social cataclysms reflect in the hero’s figure. Romanticism was an intellectual trend first and influenced the everyday practices substantially but deferred. Removing the demonstrativeness and theatrality from everyday life, Romanticism valued the spontaneous expression of feelings. The representatives of Romanticism formed the special conception of social mythology considering myth as a natural manifestation of the national spirit able to unite a nation around its culture. The romantics made a significant contribution to the development of social mythology stating that every nation must have its own mythology. The main credit in the rehabilitation of myth and forming the tradition of philosophical thinking of mythology belongs to F.W.J. Schelling.