T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

elationship. Myth is an alternative to 'Mimesis'. It tappedalternative sources of creatlve power.Explaining ourselves to ourselves, drawing the portrait,flnding the tag, telling the appropriate story-all theseoverlap, or are in some sense interchangeable. And there can beatleast some degree of reference to primitive custom whenstories lnvolving. say, the totem anlmal, or another objectwith a symbolic ancestry, play a part in forming bothindividual and grcup identity. We can now look further at thosepowers over the self which relate to a wlde range of socialllfe: fashions, manners, loyalties, degrees of affiliation toone's own society or the sub-groups within lt, ideologies andrelated beliefs-all 3reas In whlch myth is used to relate theindividual to the age, areas In which one may now try tobalanca some of the senses of function with those ofexp:anarion.AThe Amerlcan myth demonstrates that lt 1s an amalgam ofseveral powerful, pervasive, cultural ideas. The "City on ahill" concept embodled the idea tnst the future Americans wereto be a "Chosen people", a new Israel dlvlnely ordained to be a"light to the nation''. This conceot to a graar extent exerted ashaping influence on the American mind. Closely related to thisbellef 1s the image of Amerlca as "Redeemer Natlon". The NewWorld country was expected to play a singular role in global