Abstract
Myths are stories which reduce complexity and naturalize the diversity of historical events. With the development of the critical consciousness, linked to historical thinking during the Enlightenment, the traditional myths are consequently rejected. But the yearning for a reduction of the contingency of everyday human life, which is impossible to comprehend with pure reason, does not disappear. In light of these considerations based on fundamental anthropological need, numerous romantic authors developed the concept of a new mythology. Myths which go back to the origin and take place in founding contexts have been repeatedly considered as particularly important. This chapter shows how such myths attribute meaning to give a basis to social communities in modern and postmodern times.
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Notes
- 1.
Gottfried Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism, in: Ernst Behler (ed.), Fichte, Jacobi, and Schelling. Philosophy of German Idealism, New York, Continuum, 2003 (2nd edition), p. 161f.
- 2.
Roland Barthes, Myth Today, in: Idem, Mythologies, New York, Hill and Wang, 1984, pp. 1–26.
- 3.
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London/New York: Verso, 1991.
- 4.
Gottfried Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel, The Philosophy of History, Kitchener, Ontario, Batoche Books, 2001, p. 218.
- 5.
Ibid., p. 241.
- 6.
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
- 7.
Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi, Rede zur Verleihung des Karlspreises 1950, in: Harald Kästner (ed.), Die Karlspreisträger und ihre europäischen Reden, Bonn: Europa Union Verlag, 1982, p. 21, online at: www.karlspreis.de/de/preistraeger/richard-nikolaus-graf-coudenhove-kalergi-1950/rede-von-richard-nikolaus-graf-coudehove-kalergi (last accessed 28.11.2017).
- 8.
Jacques LeGoff, The Birth of Europe, Oxford: Blackwell, 2006 (2nd edition).
- 9.
Jeremy Rifkin, The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004.
- 10.
François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1984.
- 11.
Yves Bizeul, Politische Mythen im Zeitalter der ‚Globalisierung’, in: Klaudia Knabel/Dietmar Rieger/Stephanie Wodianka (eds.), Nationale Mythen – kollektive Symbole. Funktionen, Konstruktionen und Medien der Erinnerung, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005, pp. 27–31.
- 12.
Ibid., p. 31.
Literature
Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London/New York: Verso, 1991.
Roland Barthes, Myth Today, in: Idem, Mythologies, New York, Hill and Wang, 1984, pp. 1–26.
Bizeul, Yves, Politische Mythen im Zeitalter der ‚Globalisierung’, in: Knabel, Klaudia/Rieger, Dietmar/Wodianka, Stephanie (eds.), Nationale Mythen—kollektive Symbole. Funktionen, Konstruktionen und Medien der Erinnerung, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005, pp. 17–36.
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Bernsen, M. (2019). Founding Myths. In: Kühnhardt, L., Mayer, T. (eds) The Bonn Handbook of Globality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90382-8_10
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