The Hidden Myth in the Criticism of Art and Literature with Gilbert Durand’s Methodology

The transition from structuralism to post-structuralism and the transformation of the paradigm governs  society changes in the field of criticism. . In this period, the text is placed against the work, and the text becomes an open realm in abundance and diversity of meanings. Today, mythological approaches are considered as important methods of literary and artistic criticism. Myth is rooted in the history, culture and collective unconscious of nations and societies and benefits from thought, fantasy, symbol and internal imagery. The essence of literature and art seems the same, and there is a close connection between these two and myth, so myth can be considered as a literary or an artistic genre. To put it better, myth is considered an interdisciplinary genre that covers a wide range of epic, tragedy, dramatic literature, poetry, painting, and sculpture from the past and has a strong presence in cinema today. In the second half of the 20th century, the one who built Mythological criticism and organised the fundamental philosophy of imagination was Gilbert Durand. His theories and methods of criticism show this movement from Mythocriticism (Mythocritique) to Mythanalysis (Mythanalyse). He continued the new method of literary criticism that Gaston Bachelard had started but did not manage to finish, that is, a methodology based on myths. The present research aims to understand the stages of the formation of a meta-definition of myth in a chain of words and his methodology in a constructive combination of the intersection of old and new literary and artistic criticisms and their convergence in a trihedron of critical knowledge. It is taken into consideration and it moves in search of an answer to this question: The evolution of Gilbert Durand's theories in the continuation of the history of criticism until the formation of the theory-method of mythanalysis, what hierarchy did he go through and how did he use methodical mythology in the analysis of literary and artistic works and influence their criticism? The research method was done by translating and referring to the main sources including the works of Gilbert Durand and other related books, and using a descriptive and analytical method, the basics of the discussed theories were developed as practical approaches in art and literature criticism. According to the result, Gilbert Durand's definition of myth, among many definitions, is introduced and specified as a meta-definition, in that it ends the confusion governing the terms related to imagination and it provides a clear definition of the words that are necessary for his analysis; it also keeps only those expressions. Meta-definition defines this system in a chain including: reflex, schema, archetype, symbol, and myth. Gilbert Durand believes that the basis of understanding the structure of the text is the discovery of hidden myths, which are more effective than exposed myths, and knowing the cultural context of the society and metatextual issues can influence the choice of mythological patterns. According to him, myth and imagination are the center of gravity of historical, social and philosophical issues with psychological motives. It has also been indicated that from the Mythical figures and faces of the literary and artistic work to its hidden myth, what background and how many stages they have gone through to be analyzed and Mythanalysed. By identifying the mythical atom, that is, the smallest discursive unit of myth that has a structural nature, a limited atlas of micro-myths (Mythèmes) is formed at the moment of reading the work and at the moment of creating the work, and in the theory-method of mythanalysis, by searching and studying, the codes of the work are revealed. Its method can be defined in three stages: 1. Finding nuclear myths, 2. Chronology of culture and society, 3. Discovering the compensated myths. Such a process can be used to establish a proper structure in art criticism and art history through the adaptation and application of Gilbert Durand’s method in the literature. During the discussions of the article, concepts such as literary theory, literary criticism and literary history are not considered separately from each other, but it is believed that they imply each other and can be used in accordance theory of art, and art criticism. Therefore, it can be placed in the history of art. Many criticisms have been raised first in literature and dramatic literature; however, they can also be extended to art, and by referring to them, the art critic can focus on his perspective and how to create a new meaning. Gilbert Durand's theories and methodologies are usually used in a complementary way.