Myth-Making Practices of the Postmodern Art Discourse: Cognitive Approach

About the author:

Yana V. Smagina, Senior Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Professional Communication, Institute of State and Law, Tyumen State University; yanushka.28@mail.ru

Abstract:

The article stems from the complex research of the postmodern art discourse focused on the cognitive peculiarities of the contemporary myth-making practices, including de-mythologization, myth-restoration, and myth-design. The key dichotomy of human consciousness “mythological-scientific” is considered in the perspective of the postmodern art discourse pragmatic aims. The comprehensive analysis of Victor Pelevin’s “The Helmet of Horror” and Stephen Sherril’s “The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break” within the frameworks of semiotic linguistics, hermeneutics, and cognitive linguistics proves the hypothesis that postmodern discourse practices (in particular, art discourse) reveal the intentional simulation game with the reader, and the text itself becomes a certain hyper textual object of the human culture genesis, assimilating to myth.

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