Discuss the impact of television on myth, legend, and folklore. Is the impact a positive one or a
negative one? Are stories told on TV our future
myths, legends, and folklore? You explored
several methodologies about the study of myth.
None of the people who came up with these
methodologies are alive today. What method
would you come up with to study the myths,
folklore, and legends that have evolved in the
eighteenth through the twentieth centuries?
American literary scholar Richard Altick, in his
book A Preface to Critical Reading, said, “In the
latter part of the 20th century, it is hard for us to
realize how important a part mythology played in
the imagination of writers and readers down
through the ages. The gods and goddesses of
Olympus, the heroes of ancient legend were as
familiar to the people who created the literature of
the western world as popular movie stars are to
us. Their names had the power to evoke rich
emotions, which sprang from the recollection of
the wondrous stories in which these figures
participated. Unless the modern reader can
somehow re-create for herself the emotional
experience a mythological reference brought to
readers in earlier generations, her reading of non-
contemporary literature will lack much of the
pleasure and understanding it would otherwise
possess." Discuss this statement. Without an
understanding of myth, can we fully understand
and appreciate noncontemporary literature? If we
can't, then how can myth, legend, and folklore
stay alive? Does it need to, or can we survive as a
culture without it?