Page 178 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 178
šolsko polje, letnik xxviii, številka 3–4
scriptions; the transition in the American dream narrative serves only as
a necessary step to achieve the final (material) goal and it is not an inde-
pendent process in which the hero becomes free of binary constrains. There-
fore American Dream stories typically depict a goal-oriented behaviour
that is instantaneously focused on material achievement and social rec-
ognition, while the Jungian hero archetype follows the quest for whole-
ness (path of individuation), which by default leads to the process of in-
tegrating the conscious and the unconscious. To summarize: the Jungian
archetype of a hero is continuously characterized by the psyche’s pursuit
for individuation (self-actualization). At the final stage, the Jungian hero
is able to transcend the oppositions, given by an archetype. The Ameri-
can Dream hero, on the other hand, shares the basic features with their
mythological version, except for the final feature of transcendence. Con-
sequently, their existence is confined to the realm of binary oppositions,
and within that realm, they strive for material accomplishment and social
recognition. Both merits mark their endeavours, which resonate with an
ideal of opulence and upward social mobility.
To conclude this section: the pursuit of the goal and the desire be-
hind it forms an intriguing and dynamic couple that usually manifests in
a situation like Difficult task or Struggle. Regardless of the political as-
pects of the American Dream that he studies, Ghosh shares a similar ob-
servation: “In the ideology of the Dream, the difficulty of achieving some-
thing is precisely what makes it attractive. The whole point is, after all, to
overcome seemingly insurmountable odds (Ghosh, 2013: p. 8).
Implications and Discussion
This paper examined Propp’s syntagmatic approach in the context of a
modern myth. The narrative functions were used as discrete categories,
which did not necessarily follow the sequential order, as proposed by
Propp. Regardless of the non-strict order of interrelations between the
elements, the functions of the 6 biographical examples given in this pa-
per were successfully identified and paired, as seen in Fig. 1. Moreover,
the findings suggest that the abstract levels, extracted from each story,
share the same and relatively fixed structure. This structure is defined by
12 functions that are present in all story examples. From 12 narrative func-
tions, 6 distinctive function pairs that appear to be typical for the Ameri-
can Dream narrative, were identified.
The applications of narratives, based on the unconscious theory of
desire and the pleasure principle (Freud, 2013) are a common practice in
a mediated reality. Edward Bernays’ seminal work on the manufacture of
consent The engineering of consent (Bernays, 1955), demonstrates, how con-
176
scriptions; the transition in the American dream narrative serves only as
a necessary step to achieve the final (material) goal and it is not an inde-
pendent process in which the hero becomes free of binary constrains. There-
fore American Dream stories typically depict a goal-oriented behaviour
that is instantaneously focused on material achievement and social rec-
ognition, while the Jungian hero archetype follows the quest for whole-
ness (path of individuation), which by default leads to the process of in-
tegrating the conscious and the unconscious. To summarize: the Jungian
archetype of a hero is continuously characterized by the psyche’s pursuit
for individuation (self-actualization). At the final stage, the Jungian hero
is able to transcend the oppositions, given by an archetype. The Ameri-
can Dream hero, on the other hand, shares the basic features with their
mythological version, except for the final feature of transcendence. Con-
sequently, their existence is confined to the realm of binary oppositions,
and within that realm, they strive for material accomplishment and social
recognition. Both merits mark their endeavours, which resonate with an
ideal of opulence and upward social mobility.
To conclude this section: the pursuit of the goal and the desire be-
hind it forms an intriguing and dynamic couple that usually manifests in
a situation like Difficult task or Struggle. Regardless of the political as-
pects of the American Dream that he studies, Ghosh shares a similar ob-
servation: “In the ideology of the Dream, the difficulty of achieving some-
thing is precisely what makes it attractive. The whole point is, after all, to
overcome seemingly insurmountable odds (Ghosh, 2013: p. 8).
Implications and Discussion
This paper examined Propp’s syntagmatic approach in the context of a
modern myth. The narrative functions were used as discrete categories,
which did not necessarily follow the sequential order, as proposed by
Propp. Regardless of the non-strict order of interrelations between the
elements, the functions of the 6 biographical examples given in this pa-
per were successfully identified and paired, as seen in Fig. 1. Moreover,
the findings suggest that the abstract levels, extracted from each story,
share the same and relatively fixed structure. This structure is defined by
12 functions that are present in all story examples. From 12 narrative func-
tions, 6 distinctive function pairs that appear to be typical for the Ameri-
can Dream narrative, were identified.
The applications of narratives, based on the unconscious theory of
desire and the pleasure principle (Freud, 2013) are a common practice in
a mediated reality. Edward Bernays’ seminal work on the manufacture of
consent The engineering of consent (Bernays, 1955), demonstrates, how con-
176
