BETWEEN THE STATIC AND THE DYNAMIC OF MYTH: MYTHOCRITICISM AS AN ANALYTICAL LENS OF IMAGES, FROM THE WORK OF J. BORGES

Abstract

This study problematizes the dynamics between the imaginary and the image
from the analytical perspective of mythocriticism presented by Gilbert Durand
in his Theory of the Imaginary. It highlights some theoretical and epistemic
presuppositions for the interpretation of visual artifacts and the meaning of myth
as a way of questioning the reductionism present in the field of structuralist visual/
symbolic analysis. The objectives of the research are: to thematize myth as the
founding story of humanity, to explain the foundations that anchor mythocriticism,
according to Gilbert Durand’s theoretical proposal and to interpret the woodcut
“Feira livre do Nordeste” based on Durandian mythocriticism. In this way, we
consider the methodological extension of the applications of mythocriticism, from
the interpretation of the woodcut artifact, based on the work of the Pernambuco
cordelist J. Borges. The interpretative framework that has been constructed reveals
that the mythical.