ダイコトミーとアメリカ文化

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John Steinbeck wrote in his essay, America and Americans, which appeared in 1966, "Americans seem to live and breathe and function by paradox; but in nothing are we so paradoxical as in our passionate belief in our own myths." Adlai E. Stevenson once claimed that (American) democracy's strength is in its acceptance of paradox. As Steinbeck says, myths are closely associated with paradoxes. Myths are defined as statements or beliefs that appear contradictory, unbelievable or absurd but that may be true in fact and, in some cases, as even having the same meaning as "untruth," "lie" or "falsehood." In the current use of language, it could mean anything that is opposed to "reality," hence the common expression "myth and/or reality," which gives rise to another version of dichotomy. Paradoxes prevail where cross-purposes, disorderly debates or dissensions are not suppressed and easy generalities about people, rather than religious matters, are turned into myths. In ancient Greece there was once a complementary relationship between mythos and logos. Their myth is more concerned with reality than it is generally believed; it reveals something of the true nature of basic human experience though it may lack any logical structure or much empirical content. In Christian evangelical myth the narratives are not freed from the concept of omnipotent God and Christ's divinity coupled with traditional messianism, on which deists hold different views. Shinwa or Japanese equivalent to "myth" is almost exclusively concerned with gods and goddesses, or god-like heroes, and does not cover the same extensive area as English "myth." It mostly relates a sacred history of ancient Japan. This chapter is a pragmatic attempt to defend "realistic" myths as delineated by Steinbeck as constituents of paradoxes reflecting a culture with many irreconcilable beliefs or persuasions within itself, in which dichotomy never becomes less distinct.

著者

古澤寛行
昭和女子大学英語コミュニケーション学科

ダイコトミーとアメリカ文化

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