Myth

Myth PDF Author: Robert Alan Segal
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198724705
Category : Myth
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Where do myths come from? What is their function and what do they mean? In this Very Short Introduction Robert Segal introduces the array of approaches used to understand the study of myth. These approaches hail from disciplines as varied as anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, philosophy, science, and religious studies. Including ideas from theorists as varied as Sigmund Freud, Claude Levi-Strauss, Albert Camus, and Roland Barthes, Segal uses the famous ancient myth of Adonis to analyse their individual approaches and theories. In this new edition, he not only considers the future study of myth, but also considers the interactions of myth theory with cognitive science, the implications of the myth of Gaia, and the differences between story-telling and myth. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Myth

Myth PDF Author: Robert Alan Segal
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198724705
Category : Myth
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Get Book

Book Description
Where do myths come from? What is their function and what do they mean? In this Very Short Introduction Robert Segal introduces the array of approaches used to understand the study of myth. These approaches hail from disciplines as varied as anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary criticism, philosophy, science, and religious studies. Including ideas from theorists as varied as Sigmund Freud, Claude Levi-Strauss, Albert Camus, and Roland Barthes, Segal uses the famous ancient myth of Adonis to analyse their individual approaches and theories. In this new edition, he not only considers the future study of myth, but also considers the interactions of myth theory with cognitive science, the implications of the myth of Gaia, and the differences between story-telling and myth. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Structuralism in Myth

Structuralism in Myth PDF Author: Robert Alan Segal
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780815322603
Category : Folklore
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Myth and Meaning

Myth and Meaning PDF Author: Claude Lévi-Strauss
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134522312
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
In addresses written for a wide general audience, one of the twentieth century's most prominent thinkers, Claude Lévi-Strauss, here offers the insights of a lifetime on the crucial questions of human existence. Responding to questions as varied as 'Can there be meaning in chaos?', 'What can science learn from myth?' and 'What is structuralism?', Lévi-Strauss presents, in clear, precise language, essential guidance for those who want to learn more about the potential of the human mind.

The Structuralists on Myth

The Structuralists on Myth PDF Author: Roland A. Champagne
Publisher: Scholarly Title
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description


Welsh Mythology

Welsh Mythology PDF Author: Jonathan Miles-Watson
Publisher: Cambria Press
ISBN: 1604976209
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
A little-known lecture by Lévi-Strauss is the inspiration for this work. In this lecture, he intuitively suggested that in medieval Europe there once existed a set of myths, centred on the grail, which are structurally the opposite of the goatsucker myths that he famously analyzed in his mythologiques series. This work uses Lévi-Strauss' inspirational lecture as a launchpad for an exploration of a group of related medieval Welsh myths, two of which have been briefly considered previously by Lévi-Strauss himself. The root of the methodological approach this book employs throughout is the Structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss; however, it has been modified to incorporate the suggestions of later neo-Structuralists. This analysis tool is applied to a group of myths, which have become conveniently--if somewhat erroneously--known as the Mabinogion. The name Mabinogion appears as part of a colophon at the end of one of the myth of Pwyll and it was later adopted first by Pugh (1835), and then by Lady Charlotte Guest (1838) as a title for their now famous translations of Welsh mythology. Consequently, the title has stuck to describe the material that is contained within their translations and, while it is a somewhat inaccurate way to describe the myths, it has the virtues of being both a succinct and widely recognised signifier. The term has come to signify eight myths, or perhaps more accurately eight groups of myths, which are all present in the late fourteenth-century manuscript Llyfr Coch Hergest (The Red Book of Hergest), and all but one of which can be found in the slightly earlier Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch (The White Book of Rhydderch). As such, the Mabinogion is the key collection of medieval Welsh mythology and an important source for early Arthurian material. Although Structuralism and the Mabinogion have attracted a good deal of attention from the academic world, there has been never been a sustained attempt to follow Levi-Strauss' intuitive insights with a methodical Structuralist analysis of this material. In the year of Lévi-Strauss' centenary celebrations, this work is the first sustained attempt to follow his intuitive suggestions about several Mabinogion myths with a detailed Structuralist analysis of the Mabinogion. This work is therefore a unique anthropological presentation and analysis of the Mabinogion, which argues for a radical, new interpretation of these myths in light of the existence of a central system of interlocking symbols that has the Grail at its heart. Through the analysis, the book reveals a logical organizational principle that underlies a body of material that has previously been viewed as disparate and confusing. This underlying structure is demonstrated to be, as Lévi-Strauss suggested it may, the opposite of that which Lévi-Strauss himself uncovered in the Americas. The revelation of this new form of underlying structure leads to a rethinking of some important aspects of Structuralism, including the Canonical formula, at the same time as acting as a tribute to the farsightedness of Lévi-Strauss. This book makes important contributions to the fields of Arthurian studies, anthropology, Celtic studies, cultural studies, medieval studies, mythology and religious studies.

Myth and Meaning

Myth and Meaning PDF Author: Claude Lévi-Strauss
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317914422
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 73

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Book Description
The anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss was one of the greatest intellectuals of the twentieth century. His work has had a profound impact not only within anthropology but also linguistics, sociology and philosophy. In this short book he examines the nature and role of myth in human history, distilling a lifetime of writing into a few sharp insights. It is a crystalline overview of many of the basic ideas underlying his work, including the theory of structuralism and the difference between 'primitive' and 'scientific' thought and shows why Levi-Strauss remains a hugely important intellectual figure. With a new foreword by Patrick Wilcken.

The Structural Study of Myth and Totemism

The Structural Study of Myth and Totemism PDF Author: Edmund Leach
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135032947
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Designed to provoke controversy, the papers in this volume concentrate on two main themes: the study of myth and totemism. Starting with an English translation of La Geste d'Asdiwal, which is widely considered to be the most brilliant of all of Lévi-Strauss's shorter expositions of his technique of myth analysis, the volume also contains criticism of this essay. The second part of the volume discusses how far Lévi-Strauss's treatment of totemism as a system of category formation can be correlated with the facts that an ethnographer encounters in the field. First published in 1967.

Structuralist Interpretations of Biblical Myth

Structuralist Interpretations of Biblical Myth PDF Author: Edmund Leach
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521274920
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
Through the application of anthropological techniques for analysing myth the essays in this 1983 volume offer interesting and thought-provoking structuralist insights for a variety of particular cases in the Scriptures. They also give some account of past interactions between anthropologists and Christian theologians, and enter the debate on the historicity of Biblical events. Edmund Leach has been interested for many years in the implications of a structuralist mode of myth analysis for the explanation of scriptural texts and problems. His essays in this book continue the line of enquiry he first developed in Genesis as Myth (1969) and he pursues his arguments here with characteristic colour and brilliance of exposition. With the two pieces by Dr Alan Aycock on related themes, this volume makes a fascinating and controversial contribution to the study and interpretation of the Bible.

Structuralism in Literature

Structuralism in Literature PDF Author: Robert Scholes
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300018509
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The nature and leading exponents of the structuralist movement are considered as well as the structural poetics of fiction and drama

Structuralism in Myth

Structuralism in Myth PDF Author: Robert Alan Segal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781135611453
Category : Folklore
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.