Myth and Method

by Patton, Laurie L.

• ISBN13: 9780813916576
• ISBN10: 0813916577
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr

Summary

In the wake of the elegant master theories of Joseph Campbell, Mircea Eliade, Georges Dumezil, and Claude Levi-Strauss, how are mythology and the comparative study of religion to be understood? In Myth and Method, a leading team of scholars assesses the current state of the study of myth and explores the possibilities for charting a methodological middle course between the comparative and the contextual issues raised in the last ten years. In confronting these tension, they provide an outline of the most troubling questions in the field and offer a variety of responses to them.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction	p. 1
Children Consumed and Child Cannibals: Robertson Smith's Attack on the Science of Mythology	p. 29
The Rise of Ritual and the Hegemony of Myth: Sylvain Levi, the Durkheimians, and Max Muller	p. 52
Does Myth Have a Future?	p. 82
Minimyths and Maximyths and Political Points of View	p. 109
Dumezil, the Indo-Europeans, and the Third Function	p. 128
Madness in Method, plus a Plea for Projective Inversion in Myth	p. 147
Mythic Narrative and Cultural Diversity in American Society	p. 163
Archetypes of Selves: A Study of the Chinese Mytho-Historical Consciousness	p. 177
Myth and Money: The Exchange of Words and Wealth in Vedic Commentary	p. 208
Sancho Panza and Nemi's Priest: Reflections on the Relationship of Literature and Myth	p. 247
The Gilgamesh Epic: Myth and Meaning	p. 300
Picasso's Guernica as Mythic Iconoclasm: An Eliadean Interpretation of the Myth of Modern Art	p. 327
Harnessing the Dragon: A Mythos Transformed in Medieval Jewish Literature and Art	p. 352
Afterword	p. 390
Contributors	p. 399
Index	p. 403
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