Myth Textuality: Combining Kristeva's Intertextuality and Durand's Myth Criticism
Authors:   , Vulkers Johanna Maria 
Published: October 2024

This thesis presents myth textuality, a guideline for motif analysis. The motif is defined through repetition over time, repetition in the text, symbolic level, and the reader’s perspective. I propose the confluence of two theories that cover these key characteristics: Durand’s myth criticism and Kristeva’s intertextuality. According to Durand, myth criticism interprets the literary text as if it were a myth, thus allowing for the connection with ancient texts. Due to terminological unclarity and gender bias, I update myth criticism, renaming the categories of the imaginary as polemic, centric and rhythmic. Kristeva’s ideas on genotextuality encompass the interaction, within the text, of distinct levels that coincide with the divided subject. Since she did not present a delineated method, I systematise her concepts towards an instrument that recognises the genotext: textual traces of primordial trauma and inherent exploration of boundaries.
The two reworked procedures are merged into a three-step method for motif analysis: first, selection of motif and corpus texts based on textual repetition; second, analysis of the motif’s symbolic level through genotextual and myth critical procedure separately; finally, the myth textual phase renders a complete characterisation of the motif, through the combination of the previous results. The theories of Durand and Kristeva run parallel, since they both engage in repetition over time and in the textual structure. They are also complementary, as myth criticism focuses on human coping strategies in the face of (social) environment, while the genotext is connected to the individuation process. They both consider how the inherent irrational impulses reflect in the literary text’s symbolic level. Parallelism and complementarity of the two theories produce a cohesive instrument that broadens the comprehension of the motif.

Two case studies put myth textuality into practice: the flâneur and the tree motif. The flâneur motif connects the prose texts by Carmen Laforet and Antonio Muñoz Molina with Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Man of the Crowd”. Strong aquatic metaphors come to light and the relationship with the myth of the eternal wanderer. The analysis leads to the reformulation of the flâneur’s traditional characteristics, integrating the urgency of an identitary (re)definition evoked by the urban masses. The tree motif in poetry texts by Gabriela Mistral and Octavio Paz dialogues with mystical texts by Teresa de Ávila. The tree as a symbol of mystical union becomes apparent, linked with messianic myth and the myth of the Great Mother. Thus, the myth textual analysis enhances the understanding of the motif in the corpus texts, enriching the appreciation of the tree in the work by Mistral and Paz. Concluding, the results of the case studies complement the definition of the concept ‘motif’, incorporating the human being’s irrational drives as a source for the motif’s symbolic level.

Myth textuality is a versatile instrument, usable for various types of research in the field of literary analysis: specialised in the work of a single author; comparative literature research; expertise in the field of thematology and motif studies. Being a flexible tool, it can be adapted in terms of method to the perspective of the investigation, responding to the autonomy and the creativity of the researcher. Finally, since motifs also appear in other forms of expression, myth textuality can be applied to art and culture analysis, and in the field of intermediality.