CENTRE FOR MYTH STUDIES
University of Essex
OPEN SEMINAR
CAUTION: An Archetype!
Ethno-cultural myths as universal tools for self- and ‘enemy’-identity, social mobilization, and manipulation of the masses
Dr Alexey Kholodov
Odessa University, Ukraine
Thursday 29 February 2024
7.30 – 9.00 pm (GMT)
Online
All welcome
To register for this Zoom event, please email: pps@essex.ac.uk before 11.30 am on the day of the seminar (mention CMS open seminar)
Early twentieth-century illustration for the Song of Roland.
Bearing in mind that since ancient times myths have served purposes of ethnic identification and social mobilization, we shall start from the Song of Roland and approach it as an ethnomyth used for self-identity in a crucial historical moment. We shall also discuss the role of myth in ideological legitimization and trace how an ideological concept can be turned into an image and thus naturalized (Barthes). Since, at a closer look, conflicts of the modern world can be perceived as a fight between different mythologies, we shall compare the nationalist mythological image of Paradise Lost – Paradise Regained with the imperialist notion of The Chosen People. Finally, we shall try to unveil the major myths that stand behind the Russian-Ukrainian war and speak about the danger of myth as a tool for social mobilization and manipulation of the masses.
Dr Alexey Kholodov is Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Literature, Odessa University, Ukraine, and has had a life-long love affair with myth and literature or myth in literature. He has studied and taught in Canada, USA, Germany, and Italy and is the author of a monograph on Mythopoetics in Dostoevsky and Bunin and nine books of fiction, mostly collections of novellas. He has taught a variety of courses such as Myth in Modern Literature and Culture, Semiotics of the Soviet Cinema 1920-1960, and on the history of European literature and on poetics and literary theory. He is the winner of several literary prizes and grants.
Essex Myth 
I attended the lecture given by Dr. Alexey Kholodov via Zoom last night. I enjoyed his presentation very much and learned a lot from it – mythology not being my subject area.
What I would like to have said, right at the end, but was unsure whether or not it was academically appropriate was that I, like the rest of the UK, wanted to offer my solidarity for what the Ukrainian people are going through.
I would have said that I had had the great fortune to attend the visiting Ukrainian National Opera on Sunday evening at Buxton Opera House in Derbyshire and wore yellow and blue ribbons in the buttonhole of my coat, as did my husband.
The performance was absolutely outstanding and at the end – the whole audience stood in solidarity, our arms against our chest, whilst those on stage sang their National Anthem with great pride. A huge Ukrainian flag adorned the stage and there wasn’t a dry eye in the theatre. The Opera company will be travelling throughout the UK on a long tour and I know that they will be guaranteed the same reception at each and every venue they perform at.
Wishing you and all your family, friends and citizens the swiftest resolve to this dreadful and unjust war on your sovereignty.
Alison Carter
Thank you for your comment Alison. We will pass it on to Alexey in case he doesn’t see it here.
Ben
Dear Alison,
Thank you very much for these kind words and for your support. Unfortunately last 4 days were complete nightmare for Odessa. We all are trying to recover now. But of course the life goes on and, just in case, here is our Opera web page https://operahouse.od.ua/en/.
All the best, Alexey.