Myth and Language Albert Cook.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cook, Albert, 1925-1998.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Myth.

Language and languages.

Greek literature.

Folk literature.

Folk literature--History and criticism.

Greek literature--History and criticism.

Greece.

Levi-Strauss, Claude.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource ix, 332 pages)

Place of Publication:

Indiana University Press 1980

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1980.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

All aspects of human life are perceived and organized through myths and systems of myth. Language is a similarly vital function of our existence. Myth and Language explores the less universally accepted supposition that, particularly for the realm of literature, these two domains are necessarily interrelated. Moreover, this relationship is shown to be crucial to an understanding of the broader roles of literature in society. Unlike previous studies of this symbiosis, which have tended to neglect the importance of language, Myth and Language fully considers the influence of social context on the nature of literary language. Albert Cook begins his investigation into the relationship of myth and language with a critique of the work of Levi-Strauss, showing the usefulness of his binary procedures and sketching a typology of cultural phases, with particular attention to literary forms. Another section traces the redefinition of the relationship of myth and language from the oral Greek culture of Homer to the development of the discrete forms of lyric poetry, philosophy, and historiography. A final section examines the necessary reliance of elementary literary forms—proverb, riddle, parable, metaphor—on the translation of mythic concerns into language. Myth and Language is a cogent argument for the dependence of literary expression on mythic formulations.

Contents:

pt. 1. The social context: Levi-Strauss, myth, and the neolithic revolution

The large phases of myth

pt. 2. The classical example: Heraclitus and the conditions of utterance

Pindar: "Great deeds of prowess are always many-mythed"

Inquiry: Herodotus

Ovid: the dialectics of recovery from atavism

pt. 3. Elementary forms: Between prose and poetry: the speech and silence of the proverb

Between myth and proverb: the self-enclosure of the riddle

Parable

Metaphor: literature's access to myth

Language and myth.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-253-05122-3

OCLC:

1245646701