What is the difference between comparative myth and intertextual criticism?

• A. Comparative myth and intertextual criticism are the same approach.
• B. Comparative myth analyzes how myths are used within a single text.
• C. Comparative myth analyzes motifs across cultures to find patterns; intertextual criticism studies how myths are referenced or transformed within later texts.
• D. Intertextual criticism ignores myth references.

Answer: (C)

Comparative myth looks for motifs and themes that travel across different cultures’ myths, seeking patterns and possible universal narratives that emerge when you compare myths from various traditions. It’s about drawing connections between myths from different cultures to see how certain ideas—like creation, hero quests, or flood stories—repeat and vary on a broad, cross-cultural scale.

Intertextual criticism, on the other hand, examines how one text relates to another within a literary conversation—how later works reference, quote, allude to, or transform myths and other earlier narratives to shape meaning in their own context. It’s about the dialogue between texts and how a given work uses, reshapes, or responds to mythic material inside its own narrative.

So, the best description is that comparative myth analyzes motifs across cultures to find patterns, while intertextual criticism studies how myths are referenced or transformed within later texts.