Writing and the discourse of myth in culture

Abstract

The relation between myth and writing through a comparative analysis between two writing forms and their cultural correlation is addressed in order to show how the seeds of the development of the Western and the Middle American civilizing projects were sowed from the myths about the origin. The text begins presenting a critique of the evolutionist concept of writing, which Roland Barthes calls alphabetocentrism. Then, the proposal of this same author is retaken in order to examine two writing forms, one hard and aggressive, the other one soft and gently, and how they inscribe and prescribe their own history at the same time. The third section of the text conforms the critical structure from which the myth is conceived, not as a stronghold from the past overcome by philosophy, but as a reflection that is considered in its own discursive dimension, loaded with symbols, and assumed as a significant
event for the contemporary world, full of mythical images. Furthermore, two myths of human creation that are considered as foundational models of two civilizing processes are examined: the Adamic myth and the myth of the first human creation among the ancient nahuas. Finally, the corresponding cultural processes arising from both conceptions based on the symbology of evil and the symbology of duality are analysed.