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Essay: Differences between myth and history

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  • Subject area(s): History essays
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  • Published: 17 January 2022*
  • Last Modified: 29 September 2024
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 683 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 3 (approx)

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What we can conclude from the definition of ‘history’ is that history relates to events that have actually occurred in the past. The Cambridge dictionary depicts history as “the study of or a record of past events considered together, especially events of a particular period, country, or subject.” Therefore, myth as “an ancient story or set of stories, especially explaining the early history of people or about natural events and facts.” In this way, myths are not mostly true with their ostensible nature and history is considered superior towards myth. As historian Heehs argued in his article, many contemporary historians see their task as removing all obdurate traces of myth from historical records and, conversely, many students of myth consider history to have less elucidating power than traditional narratives. The use of myth and history should not be limited to the ancient history of myths, but also contemporary topics such as gender and postcolonialism. The focus of this essay will be the theoretical considerations of orientalism and poscolonialism to draw a conclusion that although colonialism is over, the systems of thinking, talking and representing which form the basis of colonial power relations still remain. (Said). References will be given to why and for whom orient is a myth.
Edward Said sought to demonstrate that the reality behind the myth of scholarly impartiality was an ethnocentric exercise of control and authority over the orient, but the reality behind the myth of Orientalism is a theoretically flawed work which offers a reduction in the account of an impoverished view of human beings. This paragraph will elaborate on the meaning and origins of Orientalism to further expand the debate of myth over the Orient. Orientalism is a critique of Western texts which have represented the East as an exotic and inferior euro-centric notion of the other and construct the orient through a series of repeated stereotypical images. It is indeed a racist stereotype that has wrongly received the force of self-evident truth, mainly because it has been repeated many times. Said argued that; “The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” (Said, p.1). Said’s model of Orientalism helps to express the idea that provides political, economic and socio-cultural justifications for imperialist actions by hegemonic countries such as America.  (p.2).
Orientalism and Postcolonialism coexisted. Postcolonialism questions the image of superiority and power of the west. Postcolonial link to modern trajectories in the Middle East resulted in the creation of Orientalism. Author Ashcroft for instance, highlighted the importance of Orientalism in European relations. It was used as a Said’s critique and emphasized the significance of postcolonial literature. He argued repeatedly that Said’s work must be perceived as an argument rather than as the presentation of some transcendental historical truth. (Ashcroft). Ashcroft further argued that it is possible to find many statements by European scholars attesting to the value of Oriental culture and the capacity of Orientalism to break the East and West cultural divide. (Ashcroft). In light of this, European fascination with exotic Oriental cultures is not a modern phenomenon. Said was right that Orientalism survives as a discourse and shapes our understanding of countries that we categorize together in the exotic place called the Orient, however, he was criticized by his literary examples and methodologies.
To conclude, there are numerous differences between myth and history. History tackles many issues in a very factual way while myths only try to elucidate daily occurrences through a more subjective way. Correspondingly, in history, the sources usually come from primary sources or objective secondary sources while in myths, many of the ideas come from personal accounts, legends, and imagination. However, the main difference is that myths are written to explain bizarre natural occurrences such of those in Marco Polo’s accounts while history seeks the truth. The myth of the Orient was only seen as a representation of the East, not as its real, natural presence.
Because of their exaggerating nature, myths are also unreliable compared to historical study.
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