The eternal work of myth

Historical activations of Babel around the idea of community construction

Abstract

This article presents Babel’s myth as a catalyst for new communal models of life in contexts of identity loss caused by the effects of power. According to this interpretation, we choose three manifestations of Babel that embody, respectively, its origin as an alternative social model in the work of Pieter Bruegel, a contextual reappearance in the 20th century in the theses of Guy Debord, and a final attempt of materialization in Constant Nieuwenhuys’ New Babylon. This triangulation follows a theoretical model of the myth constructed from philosophy and based on Hans Blumenberg and the current Mythosforschung.
Keywords: myth, Babel, Bruegel, Debord, Constant.