Claude Levy-Strauss' "The Structural Study of Myth"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Claude Levy-Strauss in his book "The Structural Study of Myth" breaks down myths structurally into four themes. The paper then describes the way that Strauss uses his algorithm to interpret any story through a prescribed matrix. The writer relates that she took a few stories and applied Claude Levy-Strauss' technique to them with excellent results; however, she does question the value of his specific four themes and in analyzing myths in this structural fashion.

From the Paper:

"What Strauss is doing is similar in practice to what a number of the other writers that we have already covered have tried to do. It is another type of analysis in which we're taking something that's essentially abstract (myth) and trying to apply concrete algorithms to it. With that in mind, I immediately have some level of skepticism. Putting that aside for a moment though, I do see quite a bit of validity in Levy-Strauss is technique in that it does successfully manage to take abstract concepts and organize them structurally."

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