‘Myth’ and ‘Mythical’ have long been commonly used in contexts opposing them to ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ situation that is now considerably altered, in literary criticism at least, for …show more content…
The word “myth” has often suffered from a wrong connotation. In General discourse, it stands for something false, fictitious and far removed from reality and history. However, the psychoanalytical approaches to criticism have made it possible to evaluate the concept of myth afresh.( …show more content…
They portray a culture, its abiding values, mores and philosophy and act as a means of their transmission across generation. Not through life-like reproductions of the portrayed subjects, however. To use the language of art, the school that myths do not belong to is realism. Myths use techniques of surrealism, impressionism and cubism. Surrealism was a “revolutionary movement in painting, sculpture, and the other arts, as well as literature”(Abrams 168).It is basically a revolution against all restraints on the free function of the human mind. These restraints may include the logical reason, standard morality, social and artistic conventions. It ensures the unhampered operation of the deep mind, which is the source of valid knowledge and art. Impressionism in literature is a manner of writing whereby the author does not try to represent reality objectively but captures the impression derived from it. The writer frequently centers his attention on the mental life of a character by simply registering his impression or sensations instead of interpreting experience. Cubism is the style of painting making use of simple geometric shapes and interlocking planes in the early twentieth century. Thus myths, so to speak, bring out the many dimensions of the verities of a culture that a realistic depiction would fail to