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"Myth."
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Denial and Acceptance
The story of Orpheus’s failed attempt to bring Eurydice back from the dead is a frequently used theme in literature and in the modern lyric in particular, and it has been the subject of sometimes excessively complex critical attention. One core of the myth, however, is the need for the living to face and to accept the fact of the death of someone close to them. Modern lyrics in different European languages—the heirs to the classical myth—make clear how Orpheus’s attempt to bring his wife back from Hades was always impossible, and that his reaction was thus a form of denial. Although many aspects of the broad Orphic complex are treated in the lyric, the poems selected demonstrate the core element of the myth, even when Eurydice is apparently given more prominence than Orpheus, the bereaved husband. It can also be related to C.S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed.
Journal Article
Social myths and collective imaginaries
\"Western or Eastern, ancient or modern, religious or scientific, myths are strikingly underestimated forces in contemporary society. In our rational, enlightened and supposedly civilized society myths have come to be perceived as the exclusive attribute of so-called pre-modern societies. In Social Myths and Collective Imaginaries, Gérard Bouchard conceptualizes myths as vessels of sacred values that transcend the division between primitive and modern. These vessels become so influential as to make an indelible impression on people's minds. We may no longer speak of Aphrodite or Gilgamesh but freedom, equality, social justice, environmentalism, democracy and nationalism are sacred values in our world. Nobody would deny that equality for all citizens in France, the right to property in the United States, or racial equality in South Africa are sacrosanct. Bouchard's refreshing and startling analysis reveals that as a sociological mechanism, myths have the power to bring societies together as well as tear themapart. In his own way, Bouchard awakens us to the transcendent power of myth that affects our daily lives, frequently unbeknownst to us.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Old Norse Folklore
The medieval northern world consisted of a vast and
culturally diverse region both geographically, from roughly
Greenland to Novgorod and culturally, as one of the last areas of
Europe to be converted to Christianity . Old Norse
Folklore explores the complexities of thisfascinating world in
case studies and theoretical essays that connect orality and
performance theory to memory studies, and myths relating to
pre-Christian Nordic religion to innovations within late medieval
pilgrimage song culture.
Old Norse Folklore provides critical new perspectives
on the Old Norse world, some of which appear in this volume for the
first time in English. Stephen A. Mitchell presents emerging
methodologies by analyzing Old Norse materials to offer a better
understandings ofunderstanding of Old Norse materials. He examines,
interprets, and re-interprets the medieval data bequeathed to us by
posterity-myths, legends, riddles, charms, court culture,
conversion narratives, landscapes, and mindscapes-targeting largely
overlooked, yet important sources of cultural insights.
eBook
The more of myth : a pedagogy of diversion
\"This book uses a nine-year experience of teaching world mythology to art students in order to discuss why and how such ancient stories provide significance today. Myth's weird images and metaphors recall Wyrd (Word), the goddess of the cauldron. Students can be guided into the cauldron of mythic language to feel the stirring of new awareness of what it really means to be human. Psychologically, myth offers insights into family relations, memory, imagination, and otherness. Ecological insights from myth teach the connection among human-animal-plant relations and the organicism of all life forms. Cosmological insights from myth surprisingly echo findings in new science, with its emphasis on quantum mechanics, force fields, black holes, subatomic particles, chaos, and the possibilities of time travel. Two areas often considered completely opposite--myth and science--actually reflect one another, since both propose theories, albeit in different ways. Myth cannot be laughed away as 'mere' fabula, since, like science and psychology, it has long explored adventures into unseen, unknown worlds that yield necessary knowledge about the place of humans in the scheme of things big and small. The 'more' of myth will be of interest to teachers and students of curriculum studies, to those seeking to go beyond Oedipus and Gutenberg, and to readers who know that all forms of life (including fingernails and rocks) are wondrous, diverse, alive, capable, purposive, and necessary.\"--Publisher's website.
Book
Quest for a Suitable Past
The past may be approached from a variety of directions. A myth provides a sense of direction: it reunites people around certain values and projects and pushes them in one direction or another. The present volume brings together a range of case studies of myth making and myth breaking in east Europe from the nineteenth century to the present day. In particular, it focuses on the complex process through which memories are transformed into myths. This problematic interplay between memory and myth-making is analyzed in conjunction with the role of myths in the political and social life of the region. The essays include cases of forging myths about national pre-history, about the endorsement of nation building by means of historiography, and above all, about communist and post-communist mythologies. The studies shed new light on the creation of local and national identities, as well as the legitimization of ideologies through myth-making. Together, the individual contributions show that myths were often instrumental in the vast projects of social and political mobilization during a period which has witnessed, among others, two world wars and the harsh oppression of the communist regimes.
eBook
Evolutions : fifteen myths that explain our world
\"An artful exploration of how the language of science has replaced old mythologies\" -- Provided by publisher.
Book
Myth in History, History in Myth
Based on the proceedings of a 2005 conference, this volume re-examines the role of Dutch social and patriotic myths. Using recent methodological approaches, the essays assess how the Dutch perceived their myths and how they were treated by previous historians.
eBook