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Design Resource

Myths

About the origins of Indian crafts

by

Gitanjli Chhibber and Prof. Ravi Poovaiah

IDC, IIT Bombay

Analysis

There are many methods and approaches to analyse literature and the best possible options to analyse mythical content are as follows, along with their respective pros and cons:

APPROACH	PROS	CONS
New Criticism	(1) Useful for undated texts in which no author is known or has no cultural historical background.	(1) It is pointless (or even misleading) to do a close reading word-by-word if you are reading the text translated into another language (like English). You must read the original Greek or Latin. (2) Approach is strictly non-chronological, so no room to trace changes.
Archetypal Criticism	(1) Works well with comparative studies. (2) Ridiculously easy to find examples of archetypes in mythology. (3) Usually, pretty fascinating as an approach when you are reading myths and thinking about their significance.	(1) Tends to lead to subjective and touchy-feely readings when done by Joseph Campbell-in the worst cases turning into mere Reader Response. (2) Tends to lead to reductive, homogenous, “cookie-cutter” readings in which critics try to fit all symbols and characters to fit same dozen or archetypes,