What is myth? Why do myths exist? What do myths do? Where are myths going? This reader is organized into four parts which explore these questions. Drawing on over 10 years of experience teaching myth in religious studies and anthropology departments in the UK, USA and Continental Europe, the editors have brought together seminal works in the theory of myth. Key features include: - a general introduction to the reader that outlines a comparative and interpretative framework - an introduction contextualizing each part and sub-section - an introduction to each reading by the editors - supporting online resources that provide discussion questions and further reading suggestions, including primary sources. From functionalism to feminism, nationalism to globalization, and psychoanalysis to spatial analysis, this reader covers the classic and contemporary theories and approaches needed to understand what myth is, why myths exist, what they do, and what the future holds for them.
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Copyright Acknowledgements Acknowledgements In Search of Mythology: Introduction, Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos Part One: What is Myth ? Locating the Field, Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. A Two-Dimensional Scheme for the Classification of Narratives, C. Scott Littleton 2. The Idea of Folklore: An Essay, Dan Ben Amos 3. Myth in Primitive Society, Bronislaw Malinowski Part Two: Why do Myths Exist? Section A: Global Theories of Myth Are All Myths the Same? Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. Balder and the Mistletoe, James Frazer 2. The Myth of the Birth of the Hero, Otto Rank 3. The Historical Development of Mythology, Joseph Campbell Section B: Myth and Dreams (Dis)Embodied Mythology, Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. Flying Saucers: a modern myth, Carl Gustav Jung 2. The Vampire as a Blood Thirsty Revenant: A Psychoanalytic Post Mortem, Alan Dundes 3. More than Stories, More than Myths: Animal/Human/Nature(s) in Traditional Ecological Worldviews, Amba Sepie Section C: Myth and History The Search for Truth, Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. Myth and Reality, Mercia Eliade 2. The Original Elements of Mythology, Max Muller 3. Cú Chulainn's Women and some Indo-European Comparisons, Nicholas Allen Part Three: What do Myths Do? Section A: Structuralist Approaches Myth and Meaning, Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. Jewels and Wounds, Claude Lévi-Strauss 2. Pulleyar and the Lord Buddha, Edmund Leach 3. An Outline of Propp’s Model for the Study of Wondertales, Manuel Aguirre Section B: Neostructuralist Approaches Beyond Binaries, Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. We Think What We Eat, Seth Kunin 2. The Gun and the Bow, Stephen Hugh-Jones 3. The Meaning of Myth, Mary Douglas Section C: Spatial Theories From Page to Place, Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. Myth, Memory and the Oral Tradition: Cicero in the Trobriands, Frances Harwood 2. Implicit Mythology in the Shimla Hills, Jonathan Miles-Watson 3. Stone-Faced Ancestors: The Spatial Anchoring of Myth in Wamira, Papua New Guinea Miriam Khan Part Four: Where are Myths Going Section A: Myths and Popular Culture What Good Are Old Stories? Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. Amateur Mythographies: Fan Fiction and the Myth of Myth, Ika Willis 2. Storm Power, an Icy Tower and Elsa’s Bower: The Winds of Change in Disney's Frozen, Lauren Dundes, Madeline Streiff and Zachary Streiff 3. Science Fiction as Mythology, Marilyn Sutton and Thomas Sutton Section B: The Future of Mythology Mythological Terminalia, Jonathan Miles-Watson and Vivian Asimos 1. Does Myth have a Future? Robert Segal Index
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Miles-Watson and Asimos (both, Durham Univ., UK) offer a rich collection of readings to aid in the study of “the origin, form, function, and future of mythology" (p. 3) … Appropriate for those new to mythology and for those teaching it, this reader will be an invaluable tool for study of mythology. Summing Up: Essential. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; faculty.
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This Reader brings together key texts for the critical study of mythology and is designed for classroom use with critical introductions by the editors.
Fills the gap for an anthology on theories of myth that draws on a range of classic and contemporary texts, from a balanced range of approaches

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781350082243
Publisert
2019-08-22
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloomsbury Academic
Vekt
703 gr
Høyde
244 mm
Bredde
169 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
320

Om bidragsyterne

Jonathan Miles-Watson is Associate Professor of the Anthropology of Religion at Durham University, UK. He is the author of Welsh Mythology: A Neo-structuralist Analysis (2009) and co-editor of both Ruptured Landscapes: Landscape and Identity in Times of Social Change (2015) and Theories of Religion: A Reader (2006). Vivian Asimos is a Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Religion and Theology at Durham University, UK.