Myths of Europe / edited by Richard Littlejohns, Sara Soncini.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Littlejohns, Richard, 1943-

Soncini, Sara.

Series:

Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft ; 107.

Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft ; 107

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

European literature--History and criticism--Congresses.

European literature.

Europe--In literature--Congresses.

Europe.

Europe--Mythology--Congresses.

Europe--Civilization--Congresses.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Myths of Europe focuses on the identity of Europe, seeking to re-assess its cultural, literary and political traditions in the context of the 21st century. Over 20 authors – historians, political scientists, literary scholars, art and cultural historians – from five countries here enter into a debate. How far are the myths by which Europe has defined itself for centuries relevant to its role in global politics after 9/11? Can ‘Old Europe’ maintain its traditional identity now that the European Union includes countries previously supposed to be on its periphery? How has Europe handled relations with the non-European Other in the past and how is it reacting now to an influx of immigrants and asylum seekers? It becomes clear that founding myths such as Hamlet and St Nicholas have helped construct the European consciousness but also that these and other European myths have disturbing Eurocentric implications. Are these myths still viable today and, if so, to what extent and for what purpose? This volume sits on the interface between culture and politics and is important reading for all those interested in the transmission of myth and in both the past and the future of Europe.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Acknowledgments / Richard Littlejohns and Sara Soncini

Introduction: Myths of Europe, and Myths of Europe / Richard Littlejohns and Sara Soncini

Europa/Europe: Myths and Muddles / Manfred Pfister

Electras and Hamlet / Guido Paduano

Myths of Europe: Ted Hughes’s Tales from Ovid / Mark Rawlinson

Myths of Masculinity: Adonis and Heracles / Pierangiolo Berrettoni

St Nicholas, Icon of Mercantile Virtues: Transition and Continuity of a European Myth / Graham Jones

Re-writing a Myth: Dryden’s Amphitryon and its Sources / Elena Rossi

‘A Foundling at the Crossroads’: Fielding, Tradition(s) and a ‘Dantesque’ Reading of Tom Jones / Roberta Ferrari

Viewing the Moon: Between Myth and Astronomy in the Age of the Enlightenment / Antje Steinhoefel

George Eliot’s Use of Scriptural Typology: Incarnation of Ideas / Alessandra Grego

Myth and the Folklore of the Sea in Conrad / Mario Curreli

Some Differentiations within the Concepts of ‘Myth’ / Darko Suvin

Places of Myth in Ireland / Andrea Binelli

Everlasting Peace and Medieval Europe: Romantic Myth-Making in Novalis’s Europa / Richard Littlejohns

British Women versus Indian Women: the Victorian Myth of European Superiority / Nuria López

Frontier Myths: Travel Writing on Europe’s Eastern Border / Andrew Hammond

West is Best: Britain and European Immigration during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries / Tony Kushner

Changing Perceptions of State Violence: Turkey’s ‘Westward’ Development through Anglo-Saxon Eyes / Donald Bloxham

From Fascism to the Bomb: Marino Marini and the Undermining and Destruction of the Classical European Horseman / Nicholas Watkins

New Order, New Borders: Post-Cold War Europe on the British Stage / Sara Soncini

The Myth of the Etruscans in Travel Literature in English / Silvia Ross

The Myth of the European Civil War / Tom Lawson

Notes on Contributors.

Notes:

"This volume is based on a colloquium entitled 'Miti d'Europa/Myths of Europe' held in Pisa in Sept. 2002"--P. [7].

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

94-012-0394-6

1-4294-8128-5

OCLC:

165101573

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789401203944 DOI