Myth

by Schrempp, Gregory Allen; Hansen, William F.

• ISBN13: 9780253341587
• ISBN10: 0253341582
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

Myth: A New Symposium offers a broad-based assessment of the present state of myth study. It was inspired by a revisiting of the influential mid-century work Myth: A Symposium (edited by Thomas Sebeok). A systematic introduction and 15 contributions from a wide spectrum of disciplines offer a range of views on past myth study and suggest directions for the future. Contributors blend theoretical analysis with richly documented historical, ethnographic, and literary illustrations and examples drawn from Native American, classical, medieval, and modern sources.

Author Biography

Gregory Schrempp is Associate Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and Co-director of the Program in Mythology Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington.

William Hansen is Professor and Chair of Classical Studies, Professor of Folklore, and Co-director of the Program in Mythology Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(18)
Gregory Schrempp
Part I. Revisiting Myth: A Symposium
Meanings and Boundaries: Reflections on Thompson's ``Myth and Folktales''	19	(10)
William Hansen
From Expressive Language to Mythemes: Meaning in Mythic Narratives	29	(17)
John H. McDowell
David Bidney and the People of Truth	46	(15)
Gregory Schrempp
Part II. Myth and Ethnography
Germans and Indians in South America: Ethnography and the Idea of Text	61	(11)
Lucia Sa
``Made from Bone'': Trickster Myths, Musicality, and Social Constructions of History in the Venezuelan Amazon	72	(17)
Jonathan D. Hill
Native American Reassessment and Reinterpretation of Myths	89	(18)
Barre Toelken
Part III. Myth and Historical Texts
Myth Read as History: Odin in Snorri Sturluson's Ynglinga saga	107	(17)
John Lindow
Myth and Legendum in Medieval and Modern Ireland	124	(15)
Joseph Falaky Nagy
The West and the People with Myth	139	(12)
Gordon Brotherston
Part IV. Myth and the Modern World
Myths of the Rain Forest/The Rain Forest as Myth	151	(14)
Candace Slater
Distempered Demos: Myth, Metaphor, and U.S. Political Culture	165	(18)
Robert L. Ivie
Part V. Myth and Visual Art
Imitation or Reconstruction: How Did Roman Viewers Experience Mythological Painting?	183	(20)
Eleanor W. Leach
Mud and Mythic Vision: Hindu Sculpture in Modern Bangladesh	203	(22)
Henry Glassie
Part VI. Myth as Concept
Myth in Historical Perspective: The Case of Pagan Deities in the Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies	225	(15)
R. D. Fulk
Can Myth Be Saved?	240	(9)
Gregory Nagy
Contributors	249	(4)
Index	253