The modern construction of myth / Andrew Von Hendy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Von Hendy, Andrew, 1932-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Myth--History.

Myth.

History.

Physical Description:

xvii, 386 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2002]

Summary:

Andrew Von Hendy offers an integrated critical account of the career of myth in modernity. He takes as his starting point some crucial moments in the eighteenth-century reinvention of the concept, then follows the major branches of theorizing as they appear in the work of theologians, philosophers, literary artists, political thinkers, folklorists, anthropologists, psychologists, and others. The modern construction of myth began with the gradual transformation of the genre of the fable into what we now know as "myth." This transformation was capped by the romantic definition of the concept elaborated by two generations of German and English poets and philosophers. The entrenchment of their transcendental premises in nineteenth-century culture provoked the appearance of three major rivals: Marx's "ideological" conception of myth as a widely propagated lie; Grimm's "folkloristic" view of myth as a story held sacred in traditional oral societies; and Nietzsche's "constitutive" conception of myth as a foundational belief, at once necessary and fictive.

Von Hendy pursues each of these four fundamental strains of theory as a guide through the explosion of speculation about myth that characterized the twentieth century. First he considers the rise of neo-romantic theories in depthpsychology, modernist literature, and a subsequent mid-century burst of theorizing in religious phenomenology, philosophy, and literary criticism. Next he marks the establishment by Boas, Malinowski, and eventually Levi-Strauss of folkloristic theory as the norm in modern ethnological fieldwork and ultimately in classical studies. Then he traces the growth of ideological theories from Sorel at the beginning of the century to Barthes and Derrida toward the close. These theories became in the late twentieth century particularly powerful enemies of neo-romantic pretensions. In the final section of the book, Von Hendy considers the recent ascent of constitutive theories of myth as necessary fiction, examining the work of five theorists who attempt to come to terms with the lessons of the ideological critique and yet regard myth as a constructive phenomenon.

Contents:

1 From Fable to Myth 1

2 The Invention of Myth 25

3 The Struggle between Myth and "Suspicion" 49

4 Myth as an Aspect of "Primitive" Religion 77

5 The Role of Depth-Psychology in the Construction of Myth 112

6 The Modernist Contribution to the Construction of Myth 134

7 Neo-Romantic Theories of the Midcentury I: Myth as Mode of Thought and Language 154

8 Neo-Romantic Theories of the Midcentury II: Myth and Ritual in Quotidian Western Life 178

9 Folkloristic Myth in Social Anthropology I: Malinowski, Boas, and Their Spheres of Influence 202

10 Folkloristic Myth in Social Anthropology II: From Levi-Strauss to Witchdrawal from Grand Theory 230

11 No Two-Headed Greeks: The Folkloristic Consensus in Classical Studies 262

12 Myth and Ideology 278

13 Myth as Necessary Fiction 304.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [363]-378) and index.

ISBN:

0253339960

OCLC:

46729395