In this essay you should examine the ways in which the category of ‘myth’ is produced and to what ends. Choose one of the following 3 quotations and discuss with reference to any of the myth theorists or theories covered in class in term 1:
1. ‘There may be the word “myth”, but the word names numerous and conflicting “objects” of inquiry, not a “thing” with its name written on it. Myth names a reality that we “cut out”, not one that “stands out”’ (Strenski 1987: 1).
OR
2. 'The category ['myth'] is often intellectually committed to an a priori clean distinction between fact and fiction, truth and falsehood, fabulous delusion and scientific lucidity, us and them, just as it is rhetorically wielded to reinforce these oppositions by coordinating them with a scale of moral, social and political values' (McCutcheon 2000:192).
OR
3. '...whenever someone calls something a "myth", powerful--and highly consequential--assertions are being made about its relative level of validity and authority vis-à-vis other sorts of discourse' (Lincoln 1999: ix).
Submission Deadline: 4pm, January 5th 2009
Word limit: 4-5000 words
And remember that it will be electronic submission via the Ble! Don't go with the essay to the faculty office because they won't accept it!
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