The Modern Construction of Myth

"... one of the richest, clearest, and acutest surveys to date of the course of theorizing about myth from the eighteenth century on. I know of no more useful volume on the topic. Despite the postmodern connotations of the title, Von Hendy is writing not to expose the concept of myth but simply to show the array of ways in which it has been used from time to time and from place to place. A superb work." --Robert A. Segal,

University of Lancaster,

author of Theorizing about Myth

Andrew Von Hendy offers an integrated critical account of the career of myth in modernity. He takes as its starting point some crucial moments in the 18th-century reinvention of the concept and 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.

Von Hendy pursues each of these four fundamental strains of theory through the 20th century: the rise of neo-romantic theories in depth psychology, modernist literature, and later in religious phenomenology, philosophy, and literary criticism; the establishment of folkloristic theory in ethnological fieldwork and in classical studies; the growth of ideological theories from Sorel to Barthes and Derrida; and the recent ascent of constitutive theories of myth as necessary fiction. Finally, Von Hendy examines the work of five theorists who attempt to come to terms with the lessons of the ideological critique, yet regard myth as a constructive phenomenon.

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.S. M. Most, Eastern Michigan University, Choice, July 2002 Indiana University Press

"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...." --Choice, July 2002 Indiana University Press

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

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