In defense of broad mythic criticism—A reply to Rowland

Rooted in the soil: How understanding the perspectives of landowners can enhance the management of environmental disputes

“…Osborn (1990) describes mythic criticism as a means for discovering relationships between "culture-specific symbols that resonate important values" for a specific group and images that remind us of "what it means to be human" (p. 123). Doty (1986) adds that mythic criticism can facilitate exploration of social, psychological, literary, structural, and other interpretive questions.…”

Bush's Mythic America: A Critique of the Rhetoric of War

“…What is it about both its form and function that distinguishes it from other types of rhetoric? Osborne (1990) synthesized the rhetorical form and function of myth in the following way: ''In myth there is a story, the story must answer some compelling question, the dramatis personae must seem larger-than-life, and the story must convey the sense of the sacred time, place, and symbol'' (p. 121). 4 Later Brummett (2005) added that myth should be viewed as a powerful form that can render the content it contains ideologically conforming, pleasingly homogeneous, and culturally natural (pp.…”

“…By focusing on the defining influences of the Vietnam Syndrome as a key oppositional narrative, I hope to highlight rhetorical features of this war myth that make it both contiguous with and unique from its ancestral form. I contend that the Vietnam Syndrome shaped the thematic content of this war myth in ways that highlight how oppositional narrative, as a tropic form, doesn't function by the ''logical principles of antithesis'' as much as it does the messy grammar of rhetoric (Burke, 1966, p. 387), thereby lending more substance to the arguments by others that myth's narrative rationality renders it uniquely rhetorical (Brummett, 2005;Burke, 1947Burke, , 1966Hart, 1997;Osborne, 1990;Rowland & Jones, 2007;Rushing, 1986). Through this specific critical focus I hope to reveal part of the demagogic character of the Bush Administration's war rhetoric that broader commentaries like McClellan's (2008) and Ivie's (2005) have overlooked.…”

The myth of white superiority inMississippi Burning

“…This may be the only consistent element of a mythic definition, however, particularly as it functions within a rhetorical text. Although some rhetoricians (notably Rowland, 1990aRowland, , 1990b argue in favor of narrowly defining myths and, hence, mythic criticism, others disagree with this conceptualization (notably Brummet, 1990;Osborn, 1990;Rushing, 1990;Solomon, 1990). While space restrictions prohibit a full explanation of the wide variety of complaints levied against Rowland, the condensed explanation lies in the narrow definitions of time, place, character, and form of a myth.…”