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Mythology in the Modern Novel
A Study of Prefigurative Techniques
By John J. White PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1971 Princeton University Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-06210-5
CHAPTER 1
Myth and the Modern Novel
The Return to Myth
"The Mythical Age" was the name the German novelist Hermann Broch gave to the twentieth century. It is a view which would at least seem to be corroborated by the preoccupations of many writers and critics of today. Yet although a common denominator of much modern literature, myth can assume as many shapes as Proteus himself, and the attribute "mythical" may conceal a variety of cultural phenomena. Anyone consulting the relevant critical literature on the importance of myth for recent writers or on the particular role of mythology in contemporary fiction will find himself confronted by a plethora of general statements about the survival, revival and creation of myth. The recurrent idea of a "return to myth," for example, betrays decidedly Rousseauistic overtones and needs much careful delineation if it is to be profitably applied in the modern context. In practice, one is often left uncertain whether the notion denotes a return to specific mythologies, such as Greek, Roman or Sumerian, or whether it refers to the revival of certain archaically mythical qualities in modern literature. For Broch, the return meant only "a return to myth in its ancient forms (even when they are so modernized as in Joyce), and so far it is not a new myth, not the new myth." Yet the "return to myth" is not always so precisely defined; the reader is often left wondering which kind of myth is being reanimated.
The ambiguity of the word "myth" does not help the reader in search of guidance. Indeed, it induces many critics to operate with a misleadingly shifting set of ideas or a rather private interpretation of the concept. Hence, while Northrop Frye can state that "in literary criticism myth means ultimately mythos, a structural organizing principle of literary form" and Frank Kermode rejoins that Frye "arrives at myth through archetypes," the uninitiated may have difficulty in tuning in to these different semantic wavelengths: the one aesthetic, the other psychoanalytical. In Quest for Myth — a work whose very title exploits this central ambiguity — Richard Chase asserts that "an interest in the creative literature of our century forces upon us an interest in myth." Yet he undertakes to substantiate this point by using a blanket terminology, sometimes referring to myths as myth and at other times as poetic images of a different order. And to write of the survival of myth — "das Fortleben des Mythos" — as Erich Kahler does in Die Verantwortung des Geistes, may sound equally ambiguous. Being a particular kind of image-making, myth has always existed as one of the categories of perception and of the imagination. "Myth making is a permanent activity of all men," Eliseo Vivas writes; "all men can do is to abandon one myth for the sake of another." To write of its survival as such would be to wax too dramatic. What Kahler in fact examines, quite legitimately, is the way in which particular myths have lived on in our literatures. By using the apparently generic word "Mythos," he implies, as Chase does, that these myths are necessarily identical with the archaic power of myth: that they survive as myth. Yet need a return to the use of specific myths inevitably entail a return to myth in the other sense? And have both kinds of return to myth manifested themselves jointly in modern literature? According to C. S. Lewis:
Certain stories, which are not myths in the anthropological sense, having been invented by individuals in fully civilized periods, have what [one can] call the "mythical quality." Such are the plots of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Wells's The Door in the Wall or Kafka's The Castle.
Many modern novels also leave one in little doubt that there has been a comparable return to the use of particular myths from traditional sources. Such titles as Ulysses, Proserpina, The Centaur, The Labours of Hercules and Gilgamesch all serve, in a limited sense, to show that modern novelists still use material from old mythologies in their works. So there may have been a return to myth in more ways than one.
The "return to myth" is often assumed to be a particular feature of the Modernist movement in the early part of this century. It appears in some writings on the subject as a product of the influence of depth-psychology on certain novelists. One reviewer refers to such a use of mythology as "that old wayside halt for tired novelists in our post-Freudian age." An impression may be given that this method is rather a thing of the past: that any contemporary novel which still incorporates myths should be assigned as a throwback to the context of an earlier epoch. Hence the elegiac ring to many of Thomas Mann's pronouncements on the subject, in the forties. For instance, in a letter to Karl Kerényi, he remarks:
Um jene "Rückkehr des europäischen Geistes zu den höchsten, den mythischen Realitäten" ... ist es wahrhaftig eine geistesgeschichtlich große und gute Sache, und ich darf mich rühmen, in meinem Werke gewissermaßen Teil daran zu haben.
Although many writers of the Modernist era, including Eliot, Joyce, Kazantzakis, Pound and Yeats, were certainly preoccupied with myths, such an interest is to be found with equal richness, and at times with a far greater intricacy of expression, in much subsequent twentieth-century literature. Therefore it cannot be assumed to be a distinguishing feature primarily of earlier decades or (worse still) to be derivative of them in an eclectic sense.
A study of the preoccupation with myth in the twentieth century would be a vast undertaking. Fortunately much of the groundwork has been carried out. Studies such as Hugh Dickinsons Myth on the Stage and Gilbert Highet's The Classical Tradition have surveyed large areas. In turning my attention to another aspect of the subject, the modern predilection for mythological motifs in fiction, I am partly responding to an evident lacuna. But die choice represents more than this. Among numerous possible features characterizing the contemporary interest in myths (including the dramatization of myths, modern poems on mythological subjects, anecdotal versions and variations on myths), the novel employing motifs from traditional mythologies remains the most frequently misunderstood example of the presence and function of mythology in modern literature. It is as much to consider certain problems of methodology as to fill a gap in critical literature on the subject that the following study has been undertaken.
James Joyce's Ulysses is the best-known illustration of this type of novel with mythological motifs which, for the sake of brevity, I shall henceforth refer to as the "mythological novel." The two fundamental characteristics of such works are: first, that the mythological parallel is suggested as an analogy or contrast to the contemporary world in which the main events of the novel occur; and second, that the parallel is an extended one and could be described as a motif. This characterization excludes novels such as Cesare Pavese's Dialoghi con Leucò, Thomas Mann's Joseph tetralogy and Jean Giono's Naissance de l'Odyssée; for such works remain in the world of myths, even if the narrative tone is a modern one, occasionally tinged with irony or what Mann once called the spirit of Voltaire. Whereas the role of mythological motifs is analogical, describing the modern world in the light of a readily available set of models, works that are mythical do not offer myths as analogies, but make them their principal subject-matter or structural principle.
Distinguishing Myths from Mythological Motifs
The need to differentiate mythological allusions and motifs from myth proper accounts for some of the terminology used in this study. Throughout, the phrase "mythological motifs" will be preferred to the simpler form "mythical motifs." "Mythological" here signifies no more than "embodying a scheme of references to mythology." (Usually this will be to Greek mythology, but the increase in anthropological studies has meant that a modern writer now has quantitatively more myths to choose from and qualitatively a greater understanding of them, and can turn to more recondite mythologies, when Greek images have become clichés.) By using the word "mythological," one can avoid the assumption which so readily presents itself: that a work containing substantial elements from old mythologies creates, or is even necessarily intended to generate, myth. "Mythical," die usual adjective in critical discussions, remains too indiscriminate a word for this purpose; it is commonly associated with a dynamic quality, a mana seldom present in works that are here described as mythological.
Any attempt at demonstrating the mythical, rather than the mythological elements in literature, would draw substantially upon Romantic theory and upon such modern theoretical classics as Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough, Ernst Cassirer's Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Claude Lévi-Strauss's Mythohgiques and the studies in this field by Mircea Eliade, Susanne Langer and Eliseo Vivas. We have, however, no reason to suppose that a work of literature is necessarily constructed to create or resuscitate myth, just because it includes mythological motifs. Indeed, one finds that most of the writers who are generally acknowledged nowadays as successful creators of such new myths, amongst them Borges, Faulkner, Giono, Kafka and Pavese, have all noticeably refrained from constructing them with bricks taken from older mythologies. E. W. Herd has even argued that in the work of Broch, Joyce and Mann "the creation of 'new myth' is frustrated ... by the return to traditional myth-material." Hence, the conclusion which suggests itself is that mythological motifs are in fact different from myths, from both old and new myths alike.
If the concept of a motif is to prove a viable one in this context, it will be helpful to exclude solitary similes and metaphors borrowed from classical mythologies and placed in isolation in modern novels. One can clearly observe the difference between isolated allusions to myths and a more organized mythological motif in Elisabeth Langgässers Märkische Argonautenfahrt, a symbolic quest-novel which appeared in Germany after the Second World War.
The narrator almost works through the whole Greek pantheon before the novel has ended, yet despite numerous references to classical mythology — to which a host of biblical images could be added, there is only one mythological motif in the whole of the novel: that of the Argonauts' voyage mentioned in the title. The narrator reminds readers of it towards the end of the story: "so hat seiner Fabel das alte Modell der heiligen Argo zugrunde gelegen." Whereas the biblical references and the allusions to Greek gods appear haphazardly throughout Märkische Argonautenfahrt, the Argonaut motif reveals a definite pattern in its appearances. As might be expected, the narrator stresses the importance of this mythological quest motif at the point where the main characters set out in search of the Golden Fleece: the convent at Anastasiendorf, their goal during a pilgrimage after the tabula rasa of the Second World War. On the second page of the novel appears the description of a photograph showing the assembled travelers. It bears the inscription: "DIE ARGONAUTEN MIT EHREN DAMEN AUF DEM WEG ZU DEM GOLDENEN VLIESS." The motif signaled here once more plays an important role as the adventurers approach their goal. Their desire to compare themselves with the Argonauts allows these travelers to see their spiritual quest in very concrete, and perhaps more optimistic, terms. The title of the novel, above all, has ensured that we see the whole journey in the light of the Greek analogy. Such a calculated use of allusions for a pattern of dramatic effect and objectivization marks the main difference between references to mythology rather preciously scattered through the narrative and the motif of the quest for the Golden Fleece. It would be difficult to avoid mentioning the Argonaut motif in any interpretation of Märkische Argonautenfahrt (just as one could not discuss Joyce's Ulysses without reference to the Homeric parallels), whereas only a detailed examination of the novel's imagery would require reference to most of the other allusions.
The noticeable patterning, rather than simply the frequency, of allusions is one measure of their function within a motif-structure. Other useful criteria for assessing the relative importance of allusions include their position in the narrative and the kind of mythological figure involved. At times a single word is enough to establish a motif, if it appears in a novel's title, as it does for example in Ulysses. Yet if it occurs in isolation elsewhere in a work, as the Greek allusions do so often in Elisabeth Langgässer's novel, one might see it as an incidental reference only and not as part of a motif. It is clear, too, that even frequent allusions to certain mythological figures and events, such as Eros, Mars or Venus, or the Odyssey, do not always produce a mythological motif. It would, for instance, be difficult to make out a case for Anthony Powell's Venusberg or Rachilde's Monsieur Vénus as mythological works. Venus is one of those mythological figures who have a general, almost allegorical connotation that does not readily lend itself to the creation of a motif linked with specific events or characters. Furthermore, it follows that if the chosen tale is not fairly straightforward, it cannot provide a clear-cut pattern. It is generally agreed, for example, that the Greek mythological figure Hermes is used as a symbol in Thomas Mann's Felix Krull. Yet Hermes has so many associations that one cannot really speak of a mythological motif giving any real pattern to our reading of this novel. To lend itself to creating a mythological motif, the analogy has to be well defined, clearly indicated to the reader and presented at significant points in the development of the narrative.
Myths as Literary Prefigurations
Rather than being viewed in isolation, mythological motifs will be related to the more general technique of prefiguration, a literary device which embraces both this and other kinds of patterning in the presentation of character and plot. A myth introduced by a modern novelist into his work can prefigure and hence anticipate the plot in a number of ways. Although an awareness of sources is declining, the ideal reader can still be expected to be familiar with most prefigurations beforehand, just as the novelist himself was when he wrote the work. And because it is better known than the new work, the myth will offer the novelist a shorthand system of symbolic comment on modern events. "Prefiguration" is a useful word to describe this relationship, since it suggests "coming before" and hence offering a comparison with a whole configuration of actions or figures.
Although now frequent in literary criticism, the word "prefiguration" is of religious origin, a translation of the Latin technical term figura used to describe the scheme by which "the persons and events of the Old Testament were prefigurations of the New Testament and its history of Salvation." One of the classic examples of prefiguration in this sense is the prophetic relationship between Abraham's preparation to sacrifice his son Isaac and the Crucifixion. In St. Augustine's time, the word praefiguratio was used instead of figura and since then the term has been secularized and adapted to many other contexts. Obviously, when used in the secular sense, the idea of prefiguration loses its original prophetic connotation. In the literary context, Homers Odyssey can hardly be interpreted as a joyous or foreboding prophecy that Joyce's Ulysses was to come.
One merit of the term "prefiguration" in its secularized sense is its latitude of meaning. With it, one can enlarge the scope of an investigation of such symbolic correspondences, to avoid certain misconceptions, by treating not only motifs taken from old mythologies, but also those using legends. For example, the legendary motif of Faust and the devil in John Hersey's Too Far to Walk is structurally very similar to many mythological motifs. A wider term also makes it possible to compare mythological motifs with literary plot prefigurations, such as the use of Shakespeare's plays in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World or of Chekhov's The Seagull in Macdonald Harris's Trepleff. And prefigurations, can, of course, come from other, less dignified sources. Echoing some lines from Walt Whitman's Song of the Exposition, Leslie Fiedler recently suggested that we "must cancel out those long overdue accounts to Greece and Rome. ... The new mythology must come out of pop songs and comic books." A recent German pop-novel, Heinz von Cramer's Der Paralleldenker — aptly sub-titled Zombies Roman — chooses its analogies from among cinema and cartoon characters. These too I would see as prefigurations. For, despite the wide range of sources for literary motifs, all these patterns bear close resemblances to many mythological prefigurations usually discussed in splendid isolation. These devices need to be compared and occasionally contrasted with one another, if this type of authorial comment is really to be understood. By concentrating, nevertheless, primarily on the mythological motif, I hope to pinpoint certain important features of the presence of mythology in the novel and to give less treatment to other aspects, such as the use of isolated allusions, metaphors and similes — techniques which have not changed fundamentally in recent times. Interpreting the mythological motif as an instance of secularized prefiguration serves at the same time to highlight its role as an analogical system of comment and precludes certain essentially Romantic views of myths in fiction as the prerequisite of mythical fiction.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Mythology in the Modern Novel by John J. White. Copyright © 1971 Princeton University Press. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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