The following undergraduate thesis attempts to apply the philosophically-anthropological structuralist approach to the analysis of myth, developed by Lévi-Strauss in relation to American mythology, to literature. There are many similarities and discrepancies between myth and literature that I am trying to illuminate on the grounds of analysis of two great manifestations of the myth of Odysseus, Homer's Odyssey and Joyce's Ulysses. I am interested in what can be considered mythic and un-mythic in these literary works. In accordance with the structuralist approach, the central questions are mainly what is myth like as a structure, and what in the structure of myth contributes to its artistic realisation in literary works that recommence and continue myth, even though they, strictly speaking, are not myths. I am also focusing on the aesthetic value of myth that lies both outside and inside of the art field, because it does not originate completely from artistic processing, but specifically from the mythic structure that should not be defined formalistically, without regard to the content which is inseparable from form.
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