Roger Caillois' Biology of Myth and the Myth of Biology

Rosa Eidelpes
2014 Anthropology & Materialism  
Anthropology & Materialism, 2 | 2014 C'est en effet dans le mythe que l'on saisit le mieux, à vif, la collusion des postulations les plus secrètes, les plus virulentes du psychisme individuel et des pressions les plus impératives et les plus troublantes de l'existence sociale. (Caillois 1938: 13) 4 Caillois' mythology thus aims firstly to explain the specific character of various manifestations of the imaginary, secondly to systematize these various phenomena that feed human myths, and finally
more » ... o show how the independent elements are nevertheless interwoven with and tied to each other to form an "organic totality" of myth (une totalité organique, cf. ibid.: 12). 5 Although Caillois' interest in myths as well as the specific focus of his research -myth is examined in relation to the miraculous, the game, the dream, and psychopathology -Roger Caillois' Biology of Myth and the Myth of Biology Anthropology & Materialism, 2 | 2014
doi:10.4000/am.84 fatcat:3pxdfttynbbk5mvn3lltrkzblu