Abstract
To specify and develop the concept of myth as a tool for close reading urban Global Financial Crisis (GFC) imaginaries, this chapter introduces different concepts of myth from scholars in the fields of anthropology, semiology, philosophy and communication studies. It shows that all of these different disciplines establish a relationship between myth, ideological communication and situations of crisis. The chapter places particular emphasis on Claude Lévi-Strauss’ structural theory and Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory of myth, which will be crucial to the analysis of urban crisis imaginaries. To illustrate how a “mythical reading” opens up productive ways of understanding popular crisis imaginaries, the chapter examines a scene from Oliver Stone’s financial crisis blockbuster film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010).
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Meissner, M. (2017). Mythical Crisis Perspectives. In: Narrating the Global Financial Crisis. Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45411-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45411-5_2
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