A Tentative Exploration Of Marx's Mythological Discussions In The Introduction To Criticism Of Political Economy

Myth,as a precious cultural heritage of mankind,has exerted a profound influence on many later writers and literary theorists.Especially on the basis of in-depth analysis by literary and artistic theorists,they have found the special role of myth.Marx elaborated the importance of myth and the status of myth precisely.These views are mainly embodied in his Political Nerve.In Introduction to Criticism of Economics.In the Introduction,Marx points out the importance of mythological discourse,which mainly involves three aspects: Firstly,Marx points out the influence of Greek Mythology on Greek art: Greek mythology,as the "soil" and "arsenal" of Greek art,has made an indelible contribution to the prosperity and development of Greek literature and art,mainly manifested in Greek art.In the aspect of portraying characters,art provides archetypes,creates a good environment and atmosphere for the vigorous development of Greek art,etc.Secondly,it reveals the unbalanced relationship between material production and artistic production.By discussing Greek mythology,this paper puts forward the theory of "imbalance",and takes classical mythology,especially Greek mythology,as an important example of the principle of imbalance.Conversely,the emergence,development andextinction of classical mythology confirm the correctness of this principle,so it will be discussed in detail in the second section of the text.Thirdly,taking myth as an example,it points out that some special artistic forms can only appear in the underdeveloped stage of artistic development.It should be said that the above statements are of great significance: Firstly,Marx discussed the origin of mythology in the Introduction.In his view,mythology is an abstract expression of natural forces by primitive people with imagination and fantasy,and once the historical conditions of mythology disappear,mythology will disappear.This exposition clearly points out the relationship between science and myth,and grasps the essence of myth.Secondly,in the introduction,Marx not only analyzed the historical conditions of myth,but also made a detailed analysis of the reasons for the disappearance of primitive myth,and Marx's exquisite views on this issue have been unanimously recognized by literary theorists of all dynasties.At last,Marx elaborated the dialectical relationship between myth and art in detail.On this basis,he further affirmed the cultural value of myth,thus effectively promoting the further development of cultural historical view of historical materialism.It should be said that Marx's assertion on the development and evolution of mythology has a high theoretical level,which has also been recognized by literary theorists of past dynasties.However,any kind of literary theory inevitably has its limitations due to the limitationsof its social and historical conditions.We must admit that Marx's exposition of mythology is mainly aimed at classical mythology,and his brilliant exposition is limited to classical mythology,but beyond the scope of classical mythology,it is not necessarily applicable.For various reasons,myths still exist and continue to be created in modern society.With the continuous development of the times,a new theory emerged.A group of people,represented by American scholars David Liming and Edwin Baird,took the lead in putting forward the concept of "modern myth".They believe that myth is not the patent of primitive people,nor is it as some people assume that it has no trace to find and completely withdraw from the stage of history.On the contrary,in modern society,there is still the soil where myth breeds.The sustainable development of science and the existence of myth go hand in hand,and they are not entirely hostile.To judge whether myth still exists in modern society,we should not confine our eyes to the historical conditions under which myth came into being,i.e.time as the demarcation line.Instead,we should dismantle and analyze the core of myth in a comprehensive way,so as to explore whether it still has "unscientific imagination and fantasy".Combining with Marx's definition of myth: "Any myth is to conquer the natural forces with imagination and with the aid of imagination,dominate the natural forces,and visualize the natural forces." It can be seen that the fundamental difference between myth andother kinds of art lies in its "divine factor" and "absurd characteristic",which are the basic characteristics of myth.The "divine factor" and "absurd characteristic" have not disappeared with the progress of the times and science,but still exist in the internal art form.Therefore,the symbols and meanings of myths may change,but their basic structural elements will not change fundamentally,but will continue to exist in another form,which is the so-called "modern myth".However,it must be pointed out that the birth of modern myth is not caused by the prosperity of science and technology itself,nor is it the result of the development of science and technology.It is people in the background of the high development of science and technology,driven by a variety of psychological appeals.In the process of rapid development of science and technology,human subjects are not suited to this high level of development,so they can not grasp the reality of science and technology very well.Therefore,modern mythology came into being at the historic moment.To sum up,understanding the relationship between classical mythology and modern mythology is particularly necessary for us to have a deeper understanding of Marx's mythology.Starting from the text,this paper aims at exploring the historical conditions for the birth and development of Greek mythology and the relationship between scientific development and modern mythology as discussed in Marx's "Introduction to Criticism of Political Economy",with a view to clarifying the various mists pervading these issues.