Descrizione

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Schutzumschlag leicht berieben, Anhaftung auf Cover, Leimschatten, innen sauber / dust jacket slightly rubbed, adhesion on cover, glue shadow, clean inside. - Ren�ellek once wrote, �For many writers, myth is the common denominator between poetry and religion.� Yet myth in the twentieth century has been a particularly perplexing problem, especially to scholars who deal in the human sciences of ethnology and the history of religions and philosophy. In this exceptional study, Ivan Strenski proposes a dramatic shift from the textual approach of studying myth to a search for common ground, a contextual approach in learning and understanding myth and the people who theorize about it: myth formed not only by text but also by intention. In analyzing Eliade, Cassirer, L�-Strauss and Malinowski, Strenski shows us the inevitable path these innovators have taken to speak for their own time, often dealing violently with the past and destroying the common language of history we all speak. He describes the ways in which these four great thinkers often talk at cross-purposes, not openly engaging in each other�s ideas and perspectives but instead summarily dismissing each other and vying for the pre-eminence of myth. This conflict, purports Strenski, has led us to a state in which current concepts and theories of myth have been manufactured according to the larger theoretical, professional and cultural projects assumed by these leading theorists. It is as if we are in the presence of major merchandisers competing for the best and largest market. Strenski describes how these four wrestled within the framework of their participation in major movements of their time: Cassirer in Weimar Germany�s primitivism, Eliade in the radicalized Romania of the 1930s, L�- Strauss in the last days of the French Third Republic and Malinowski in his struggles with British colonial administration. This contextual approach leads to a fuller under- standing of the complexity of human action and thought and begins a new dialogue for the many theories of myth now prevalent in our age. / Contents Acknowledgements 1 Introduction: The Problem with 'Myth' 2 Ernst Cassirer: Political Myths and Primitive Realities 3 Bronislaw Malinowski: Pragmatic, Romantic Mythologist 4 Eliade and Myth in Twentieth-Century Romania 5 Eliade's Theory of Myth and the 'History of Religions' 6 L�-Strauss and Myth in Durkheimian Perspective 7 Thoughts in Geological Time: Structuralism and Political Myth 8 Conclusion: Theory of Myth - Twentieth-Century Artifact Notes Index. ISBN 9780877451815