Myth, Mind and the Screen: Understanding the Heroes of our Time

by John Izod

• ISBN13: 9780521792530
• ISBN10: 0521792533
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-12-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Myth, Mind and the Screen is a systematic attempt to apply Jungian theory to the analysis of films (including 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Silence of the Lambs and The Piano) as well as a variety of cultural icons and products such as Madonna, Michael Jackson and televised sport. Through these and other examples, John Izod shows how Jungian theory can bring new tools to film and media studies and new ways of understanding screen images and narratives. He also demonstrates how Jungian analysis can provide us with fresh insights into the psychological dimensions of contemporary mythology and the subjective experience of audiences. Perhaps most controversially, he argues that in the Western world cinema and television bear much of the responsibility for collective emotional mediation that in previous centuries was borne by organised religion. A valuable resource for students of film and media studies, cultural studies and psychoanalytic studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Glossary

Introduction

1. Jungian theory, textual analysis and audience play

2. Archetypal images: signification and the psyche

3. Archetypal images, symbols and the cultural unconscious

4. The Piano: the animus and colonial experience

5. The pop star as icon

6. The quest of a female hero - The Silence of the Lambs

7. Television sport and the sacrificial hero

8. The polycentred self - The Passion of Darkly Noon

9. Haunted: searching for the whole self

10. Transforming the final ghost - the god within

Conclusion

Filmography.