Page 61 - Critical and Cultural Theory

LANGUAGE AND INTERPRETATION
explanation provided than it solidifies into a myth, a dogmatic
belief that people are expected to leave unexamined. Classical
mythology claimed superiority over magic by presenting itself as a
coherent and universal representation of the workings of the
cosmos and of the relationship between the human and the divine.
Yet, its somewhat dogmatic claims to truth and universality made
it vulnerable to criticism.
Adorno and Horkheimer argue that the supplanting of magic by
Classical mythology constitutes an attempt to suppress the plural-
ity and fluidity of primitive belief systems and rituals, in the
pursuit of unifying representations. The Enlightenment, in turn,
claims to supersede mythology by dissolving illusory superstitions
in the name of scientific knowledge. However, the cult of reason
turns out to be yet another myth, yet another totalizing endea-
vour. All mythologies, whether stemming from religion or from
science, ultimately amount to the repression of human diversity, to
the subjugation of variety to a dominant value: unity (Adorno and
Horkheimer 1986). Italo Calvino's evaluation of myth echoes the
view expounded by Adorno and Horkheimer: 'Myth tends to crys-
tallize instantly, to fall into set patterns, to pass from the phase of
myth-making into that of ritual, and hence out of the hands of the
narrator into those of the tribal institutions responsible for the
preservation and celebration of myths' (Calvino 1987: 23). In
contemporary Western cultures, the crystallizing of myth into 'set
patterns' is aided by fashion and the media. The representations
they incessantly churn out for mass consumption are mythological
in the sense that they are laden with symbolic connotations. 6 The
myths they embody are not, by and large, allowed to grow or
expand in new directions. In fact, they are frozen into signifiers of
identity and status by the 'tribal institutions' of corporational
economies which, while promoting decentralization (most notably
through the Internet), simultaneously display an addiction to
unity.
The obsession with unifying agendas, which Adorno and
Horkheimer associate with Classical and Enlightenment mytholo-
gies, is still rampant today and manifests itself through the cults of

6 1*" The mythological status of commodities has been exhaustively analysed by
Roland Barthes, whose theories are discussed in Part I, Chapter 6, Textuality'.

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