Myths That Bind: Towards a Sociology of Political Myth

Vasfiye Toprak, University of Virginia

Sociological research has typically theorized nationalism as the answer to why, today in modern politics, we can observe the presence of myth, memory, and broadly the mobilization of certain symbols and meaning, as opposed to the long-predicted disenchanted, and rational processes of politics. A second typical answer has been that of religion, which is typically explained as a tool to legitimate political action and authority. This paper, on the other hand, theorizes political myths as the answer to these questions. It proposes political myths as a narrative structure that answers one’s “need for significance”. Through a structural-hermeneutical and a historical analysis of the empirical case of Turkish diaspora members in Germany, I demonstrate that political myths are composed of the same narrative structure, even when the content of the narratives radically differ and belong to opposite ends of a political spectrum. Utilizing Vladimir Propp’s structural framework of analysis, I find that political myths hold 4 major components, that of an initial situation, a villainy that causes a lack, a sacred hero, and a counteraction. I propose that a sociology of political myth serves useful in terms of encompassing situations in modern politics where meaning is involved, but one that does not confine them to being solely related to a nation or a national community in particular, or one that does not merely seek to explain moments of consensus or solidarity.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 244. Cultural Constitution of Politics