Re: Literary vs. Oral cultuer -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 10:12:16 02/20/08 Wed
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Re: Literary vs. Oral cultuer
In reply to: Jfish 's message, "Literary vs. Oral cultuer" on 20:09:55 02/17/08 Sun

I like your point about the difference between literary and oral cultures here, Jon. I was wondering recently about conscious literary creation, specifically in works (like Don Quixote) which we could call (I believe....) metafictional - conscious of their role as fiction. A work and its author which are conscious of their creative power can use that power to cover over a historical murder. Thus, the act of writing, of creation, can become a ritual in and of itself, one in which the victim is sacrificed again - even without the religious element. Yet, at the same time, it often seems that the very act of creating well can undo the mythological process. That is to say, the very act of mythologizing a text in written form, when done well, can undo that sacralization. This seems to be occuring in Euripides and Sophocles, and perhaps even in some of Shakespeare. In these texts, the details of the text often override what might even seem to be the mythological purpose of the text. Much of that undermining seems to come out of the text's consciousness of itself, such as Euripides' consciousness of his play's position in a Dionysiac festival. Could it be that the more consciously a writer creates, the more his work will undercut any mythological purpose which he wishes it to have?

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