I started thinking recently about the importance of historical/national narrative in decision making (as in, decision-making is based in large part in people’s concept of the national story, and what the nation “is”). I’m wondering if there’s a specific term for it, so that I can look up more about it.
I’m also particularly interested in research about change a group/national narrative.
The word you want is myth. Myths needn’t involved gods, monsters, magic, or super-powers; they are the stories (and framework of those stories) that help define a culture’s values.
That is what I wanted. Found a bunch of stuff this afternoon. Thanks!
Another term is lore.
To me, myth implies a story known to be false, while lore is a story where the accuracy is unknown or lost in history.
Our Ancestors, The Gauls is a famous paper in Archaeology concerning, as author Michael Dietler calls them “invented traditions.” They are not so much myths as pick-and-choose selections from popular history, often rather lacking in pure factual basis.
The idea of ‘true’ myths can seem unintuitive but that’s what its normally called in academia. See Roland Barthes. It’s about defining the word myth through it’s function in a society rather than any unanswerable question about being ‘true’ or ‘false’.
For the OP there’s a massive body of literature out there- if you’d like some suggestions feel free to post what you’ve read already and maybe your level of study in social sciences (not that you need to have studied it, just don’t want to post stuff too basic for you).
Sri Theo, I am very interested in the literature, particularly in how national myth influences decisionmaking. As a part of my thesis, I’ve begun looking at how [what I was calling] “narrative” [but now realize realize is “myth”] influences how people frame decisions, especially on policy. This wasn’t originally a part of my thesis, but my readings got me thinking about it, so I want to include something about it.
I already had a vague seed of an idea floating around a couple of weeks ago, then I came across the paper “How the past weighs on the present: Social representations of history and their role in identity politics” (Liu and Hilton). Other than that, I’ve got a lot of foreign policy writing under my belt that deals with these sorts of things, but not in really psychological terms. The closest thing would be Bacevich’s writing in Washington Rules about American Credo and the “Sacred Trinity” in defense, but his assessment of how it affects actual decisions is more philosophical than psychological.
On the other hand, I’ve got a lot of behavioral economics and crowd psychology literature that shows how different frames and settings can effect decisions, but nothing on the effects of national myth in particular.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
I agree. My lit professor in undergrad always stressed that when speaking of myth, the literal truth or falsity of the story was beside the point.
Your definition reflects common usage, but you may not be aware that there is an academic study of myth going back several ceturies which uses these terms in a more precise and controlled fashion. Myths are not “known to be false.” They are, in fact, held to be true, but it’s more of a poetic truth than a literal / scientific one.
By the way, for contemporary uses of myth in politics, I’d look at the field of folklore rather than literary studies. Most people have incorrect ideas about what the field of folklore is about, but it’s pretty much exactly this: people’s traditional beliefs, narratives, and behaviours that have a huge influence without anyone noticing them much.
I don’t know what period you’re looking at, but anything Felix Oinas wrote with “nationalism” in the title might be a good starting point, and Eric Hobsbawm’s The Invention of Tradition. Less about myth per se, but if you haven’t looked at them they’re worth it.