Consumer Myths: Frye's Taxonomy and the Structural Analysis of Consumption Text

This article presents a structural analysis of myths in consumption text, using Northrop Frye's taxonomy of mythoi to assign consumer narratives and selected advertisements to four categories of mythic plots: comedy, romance, tragedy, and irony. Frye's categorization scheme derives from literature, and the plot types embody structural links between consumption myths and those found in other cultural texts. Each mythos also incorporates values encoded in the plot that reappear in consumption narratives and in advertising appeals using mythic patterns and characterization. Frye's taxonomy is first applied to a reanalysis of Thanksgiving narratives in Wallendorf and Arnould's " 'We Gather Together': Consumption Rituals of Thanksgiving Day" and next to an analysis of pre-Thanksgiving food advertising coupons. The analysis demonstrates that the Thanksgiving narratives and related advertising exemplars fit into conventional plot structures that serve as organizing devices for both the articulation of consumption experience and the design of consumer appeals. Copyright 1995 by the University of Chicago.