Author(s): Polina Herchanivsʹka / Language(s): Ukrainian
Issue: 1/2013
The article is dedicated to the problem of the variability and the invariability of the mythological consciousness; the determinants of mythological stability in human life are defined. Ukrainian folk culture is directly linked to the mythological traditions. Myths have deeply penetrated into the consciousness of the Ukrainian people, mythology permeated Ukrainian folklore and mythological themes can be found in the Ukrainian art and literature. The tendency to mythologism can be seen in different areas of our lives. Amazing survival of the myth, the universalism of mythological structures encourages us to seek for an answer to the question that determines the stability of the mythological life of the people? 19th–20th centuries saw an enormous enrichment of our understanding of myth. If in the 19th century positivist science myths were interpreted as a rule, in the discourse of the theory of relics, as the echoes of bygone customs and naive archaic way of explaining the surrounding world, in the 20th century experienced an explosion of concepts about the nature of myth. With all the diversity and conflicting theories the science of the 20th century. has considerably deepened understanding of this phenomenon. Approaches to myth by J. Frazer, E. Durkheim, have received a new life in the realistic rational functionalism of B. Malinovsky, the theory of "collective representations" of Levy Bruhl, in logical symbolism of E. Kassyrer, psychological symbolism of Jung, the structural analysis of K. Levi-Strauss as well as the concepts of J. Campbell, M. Eliade, A. Losev V. Toporova and others. The term "mythological consciousness", in the opinion of the author, is the most versatile tool for the study of this complex phenomenon, which defies any scientific logic: firstly – a primitive man has not separated himself from the environment – natural and social, and secondly – diffusivity , indivisibility of original thinking, which was not separated from the emotional and affective-motor areas, that manifested itself in the fuzzy separation of subject and object, object and character, a creature and its name, single and plural, spatial and temporal relations, the origin of and nature etc.; thirdly, naive humanizing of the surrounding environment and as a result, the total personification of the myths and widespread metaphorical comparison of natural and cultural (including social) objects; fourth – the replacement of causal connection relations precedent – the origin is issued by its essence. According A. Losyev, "mythical consciousness is the least of all intellectual and thinkingly perfect consciousness. Yet at the stage of the archaic consciousness domination there came into existense the first forms of normative reflection of human experience in the form of myths that had played an important role in socialization and inculturation of individuals. According to A. Losyev, the myth – is "not a fiction, but it includes a strict and most prominent structure and it is quite logical, i.e. primarily dialectically necessary category of consciousness and existence in general". Thus, the myth is nothing but reality itself, determined by sociocultural existence. Mythological consciousness is syncretic, and it manifested itself in the unity of myth, ritual and art, which reflected the community adopted value system .This interaction cannot be understood as a mere conglomeration of cultural phenomena as they are indissoluble integrity – ideological, functional, structural, artistic, aesthetic. Mythological consciousness is symbolic. The idea of symbolic mythological thinking is more fully represented in the work by E. Kassyrer. According to his teaching, mythology emerges as an autonomous symbolic form of culture, which simulates the physical world by means of symbolic objectification of sensory information and emotions. According to E. Kassyrer mythological consciousness, as a system of codes, specific sensory is summarized and converted into character. Some objects without losing their specificity, become the signs of other objects or events. So it is about certain mythical symbolism. Mythological consciousness also creates an inherent spatial model of the world. For example, in the old Slavic world the world was described within the coordinate system: the vertical direction – as the world tree (triple vertical structure of the world: heaven, earth and hell) and horizontally – with four-directional structure (south-north, east- west). Apart from political myths, the neomyths about extraterrestrial civilizations, Bigfoot, Loch Ness monster become essential elements of postmodern mythology. In fact, the era of postmodern thinking is an essential feature. Above all it deals with some supernatural phenomena. The idea of supernatural from the view of modern science engages the comprehension of the laws that reveal the natural order of things. And everything that violates these laws, that is out of mind, is irrational. Mythological consciousness requires the awareness of patterns that let you see violations. However, unlike the primitive age, current thinking is aimed at the analysis and validation of the information underlying myths. For example, different versions of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations are being created in favor of the hypothesis on the relationship of individual petroglyphs (lines in the Nazca desert in Peru, called "Astronaut" at Rock Burun-Kaya in Crimea, multicolor painting plateau Tassylyn-Adzher in Africa, etc.) by the aliens from the from space. The analysis suggests that the mythological consciousness is characterized by a certain variability in the invariance of the basic structuring elements. It can be described as a system with its own model of time and space, which contains the invariant substance as traditional, collective, syncretic, symbolic, metaphorical.
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