Synopsis:
- Extending structuralism to social phenomena, which are also systems of signs like language
- Myths from different cultures (myths whose contents are very different) share similar structures
- Myth is a language: Myth is made of units that are put together according to certain rules
- There are the equivalent of "langue" and "parole" for myth: its "langue" is its timeless meaning, its "parole" is its historical setting
- Myth also exists on a third level: its flexibility/adaptability (myth can be manipulated -without losing its basic shape)
- Mytheme is the elementary unit of Myth (several sentences representing an event, a scene, etc)
- A mytheme is a "bundle of relations"
- Mythemes can be read both diachronically (the story that is being told, the sequence of events) and synchronically (the timeless meaning of it, the "themes")
- The themes of myths are relations/tensions between two opposing concepts (e.g., between selfishness and altruism)
- Mythical thinking is logical thinking
- Myths use that binary logic because it is the logic employed by the human mind
- "Myths think in men without their knowing"
- Mythical thinking is inherent to the human mind
- Mythical thinking is the human way of understanding nature and the human condition
- Myths provide access to the way the human mind works
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- Disneyland (1955)
- The distinction between real and unreal disappears
- People are only connected to the world by images created by someone else
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