Myth in the structure of national consciousness

Abstract

In the context of globalization processes, the problem of nations and national selfconsciousness has become one of the most widely discussed in the modern social sciences and humanities. Within the framework of globalization approaches, a nation is viewed as a transitional formation between traditional locality and planetary interdependence. According to modern theories, the model of a nation is built on the basis of Western European developmental patterns. From such viewpoint, the characterization of ethnicity is rejected, as a feature of “primitive”, “pre-political” societies as marginal groups doomed to assimilation into the existing structures. The central problem of ethnical belonging is the issue of origin, the restoration of cultural and historical memory and the construction of the “appropriate past”, which would assist in solving the problems of the present. The core of any national culture is national-ethnic self-consciousness which is the key factor in the national identity formation. It is pointed out that certain types of myths are inseparable from the ethnic identity. Today, researchers speak of the process of “remythologization”. For Russia, which has always been a multiethnic state, the problem of scientific definition of nations, ethnic groups, national and ethnic consciousness has a special practical significance. In Russia and the post-Soviet space, the activation of mythological thinking has its own specifics.

Keywords: Nations, Ethnicity, National consciousness, Myth, Globalization