ABSTRACT
The close relations between myth and history, not only as narrative forms but also as ideological constructs, have been thoroughly studied by structuralist and poststructuralist theorists such as Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Hayden White and others. The results of such studies have formed the basis for extensive feminist research concerning the goals and methods of female historiography and mythmaking. For instance, Hayden White’s remark (in relation to Lévi-Strauss’s theory) that ‘to historicize any structure, to write its history, is to mythologize it’ (White 1978:103-4) is extremely illuminating to feminists not only because it uncovers to them the methods of patriarchal historical practices but also because it reveals to women the mechanisms of historical and mythic production and therefore suggests to them ways of constructing their own ‘other’ histories and mythologies.
