Preliminary Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
One. From Fable to Myth
Two. The Invention of Myth
Three. The Contest Between Myth and "Suspicion"
Four. Myth As an Aspect of "Primitive" Religion
Five. The Role of Depth-Psychology in the Construction of Myth
Six. The Modernist Contribution to the Construction of Myth
Seven. Neo-Romantic Theories of the Mid-Century I: Myth As Mode of
Thought and Language
Eight. Neo-Romantic Theories of the Mid-Century II: Myth and Ritual
in Quotidian Western Life
Nine. Folkloristic Myth in Social Anthropology I: Malinowski, Boas,
and Their Sphere of Influence
Ten. Folkloristic Myth in Social Anthropology II: From Levi-Strauss
to Withdrawal from Grand Theory
Eleven. No Two-Headed Greeks: The Folkloristic Consensus in
Classical Studies
Twelve. Myth and Ideology
Thirteen. Myth As Necessary Fiction
Notes
Works Cited
Index
A critical analysis of the major theorists of myth since the 18th century.
Andrew Von Hendy is Associate Professor of English at Boston College and author of articles on late medieval, early modern and nineteenth-century English poetry, drama, and fiction; on Northrop Frye's mythography; and on conceptions of myth among modernist poets and novelists of the early twentieth century
Von Hendy (English, Boston College) begins his study with the
18th—century re—creation of the concept of myth and traces its
development through three subsequent classes of theories, all
deriving from the romantic or transcendental theory: the
ideological, the folkloric, and the constitutive, each of which
persists today. The book's organization is basically chronological,
but, because of the complex interdisciplinarity of writings on
myth, it is also partly taxonomic and partly evaluative. Whereas
other mythographers tend to concentrate on the mature theories of
the writers, Von Hendy explores the development of the theories and
the influences on them. His grasp of the subject is masterful; his
elucidation of the genealogy of the theories and his evaluation of
them are exceptional in their comprehensiveness. His style,
however, is unusually dense and laborious. Although there is some
overlap with William Doty's Mythography: The Study of Myths and
Rituals, (1986; 2nd ed., 2000), Jan de Vries' Forschungsgeschichte
der Mythologie (1961), and The Rise of Modern Mythology 1680—1860,
compiled by Burton Feldman and Robert Richardson (CH, Oct'72), Von
Hendy's work is sui generis. More than a study of myth, it is an
exploration of modern human cultural and intellectual history.
Graduate students, researchers, faculty.
*Choice*
Whereas other mythographers tend to concentrate on the mature
theories of the writers, Von Hendy explores the development of the
theories and the influences on them. His grasp of the subject is
masterful; his elucidation of the genealogy of the theories and his
evaluation of them are exceptional in their comprehensiveness. . .
.July 2002
*Choice*
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