Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes and Archetypes PDF Download

Author: Pierre Brunel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317387147
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1224

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Book Description
First published in French in 1988, and in English in 1992, this companion explores the nature of the literary myth in a collection of over 100 essays, from Abraham to Zoroaster. Its coverage is international and draws on legends from prehistory to the modern age throughout literature, whether fiction, poetry or drama. Essays on classical figures, as well as later myths, explore the origin, development and various incarnations of their subjects. Alongside entries on western archetypes, are analyses of non-European myths from across the world, including Africa, China, Japan, Latin America and India. This book will be indispensable for students and teachers of literature, history and cultural studies, as well as anyone interested in the fascinating world of mythology. A detailed bibliography and index are included. ‘The Companion provides a fine interpretive road map to Western culture’s use of archetypal stories.’ Wilson Library Review ‘It certainly is a comprehensive volume... extremely useful.’ Times Higher Education Supplement

Author: Peter Hunt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113443684X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1399

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Book Description
Children's literature continues to be one of the most rapidly expanding and exciting of interdisciplinary academic studies, of interest to anyone concerned with literature, education, internationalism, childhood or culture in general. The second edition of Peter Hunt's bestselling International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature offers comprehensive coverage of the subject across the world, with substantial, accessible, articles by specialists and world-ranking experts. Almost everything is here, from advanced theory to the latest practice – from bibliographical research to working with books and children with special needs. This edition has been expanded and includes over fifty new articles. All of the other articles have been updated, substantially revised or rewritten, or have revised bibliographies. New topics include Postcolonialism, Comparative Studies, Ancient Texts, Contemporary Children's Rhymes and Folklore, Contemporary Comics, War, Horror, Series Fiction, Film, Creative Writing, and 'Crossover' literature. The international section has been expanded to reflect world events, and now includes separate articles on countries such as the Baltic states, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Iran, Korea, Mexico and Central America, Slovenia, and Taiwan.

Author: R. Howells
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230510841
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
The first critical analysis of the Titanic as modern myth, this book focuses on the second of the two Titanics . The first was the physical Titanic , the rusting remains of which can still be found twelve thousand feet below the north Atlantic. The second is the mythical Titanic which emerged just as its tangible predecessor slipped from view on 15 April 1912. It is the second of the two Titanics which remains the more interesting and which continues to carry cultural resonances today. The Myth of the Titanic begins with the launching of the 'unsinkable ship' and ends with the outbreak of the 'war to end all wars'. It provides an insight into the particular culture of late-Edwardian Britain and beyond this draws far greater conclusions about the complex relationship between myth, history, popular culture and society as a whole.

Author: Margaretta Jolly
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136787445
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1141

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Book Description
This is the first substantial reference work in English on the various forms that constitute "life writing." As this term suggests, the Encyclopedia explores not only autobiography and biography proper, but also letters, diaries, memoirs, family histories, case histories, and other ways in which individual lives have been recorded and structured. It includes entries on genres and subgenres, national and regional traditions from around the world, and important auto-biographical writers, as well as articles on related areas such as oral history, anthropology, testimonies, and the representation of life stories in non-verbal art forms.

Author: Diane Green
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 1783163690
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
This book is an examination of the novels of Emyr Humphreys in the light of his ideas on Wales: Welsh history, Welsh culture and the importance of a separate Welsh identity. It explores Humphreys’ practice in the light both of his own theories of culture and fiction and of a variety of models derived from postcolonial theory. Its main conclusions are that there are two particular techniques, the use of Welsh history and of Celtic myth, that have proved particularly central to Humphreys’ purposes throughout his career. These have consistently been the principal ways in which he foregrounds for the reader both what it means to be Welsh and the importance, for the nation, of maintaining an understanding of its heritage. And both these key strategies of his fiction should, it is argued, be read as typical postcolonial devices.

Author: Nancy Hathaway
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440650810
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
How was the world as we know it created? What does it mean to be a hero? Where do we go when we die? Why are flood myths so ubiquitous? Anyone who has pondered these and other questions about humanity's ancient beliefs will be fascinated by The Friendly Guide to Mythology. Focusing on Greek and Roman mythology but including myths from Africa, Asia, Australia, northern Europe, and the Americas, The Friendly Guide to Mythology is filled with compelling stories of gods, goddesses, mortals, and monsters. Beautifully ornamented with photos, line drawings, and quotes, this entertaining guide also includes an A-to-Z listing of the world's most captivating goddesses; profiles of famous writers, collectors, and interpreters of myths; and engaging sidebars. Featuring myths of love, wisdom, and adventure as well as those of violence, jealousy, and pure folly, this accessible collection offers fascinating insight into the human psyche and brings our rich mythological heritage delightfully into focus.

Author: William Blazek
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 9780853237464
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This challenging new book looks at the current reinvention of American Studies: a reinvention that, among other things, has put the whole issue of just what is 'American' and what is 'American Studies' into contention. The collection focuses, in particular, on American mythology. The editors themselves have written essays that examine the connections between mythologies of the United States and those of either classical European or Native American traditions. William Blazek considers Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine novels as chronicles combining Ojibwa mythology and contemporary U.S. culture in ways that reinvest a sense of mythic identity within a multicultural, postmodern America. Michael K Glenday's analysis of Jayne Anne Phillips' work and explores in it the contexts where myth and dream interact with each other. Betty Louise Bell is one of four essayists in this collection who focus their criticism on authors of Native American heritage. In the first part of 'Indians with Voices', Bell carefully argues that Roy Harvey Pearce's seminal Native American studies text Savagism and Civilization fails to acknowledge its white elitist assumptions about what constitutes The American Mind and views Native Americans along a primitive-savage binary that helped to create a twentieth-century 'national mythos of innocence and destiny'. Other essays include Christopher Brookeman's study of the impact of Muhammad Ali on Norman Mailer's non-fiction writing about heavyweight boxing.

Author: Katrin Berndt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317122119
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Taking up the various conceptions of heroism that are conjured in the Harry Potter series, this collection examines the ways fictional heroism in the twenty-first century challenges the idealized forms of a somewhat simplistic masculinity associated with genres like the epic, romance and classic adventure story. The collection's three sections address broad issues related to genre, Harry Potter's development as the central heroic character and the question of who qualifies as a hero in the Harry Potter series. Among the topics are Harry Potter as both epic and postmodern hero, the series as a modern-day example of psychomachia, the series' indebtedness to the Gothic tradition, Harry's development in the first six film adaptations, Harry Potter and the idea of the English gentleman, Hermione Granger's explicitly female version of heroism, adult role models in Harry Potter, and the complex depictions of heroism exhibited by the series' minor characters. Together, the essays suggest that the Harry Potter novels rely on established generic, moral and popular codes to develop new and genuine ways of expressing what a globalized world has applauded as ethically exemplary models of heroism based on responsibility, courage, humility and kindness.

Author: Michel-Andre Bossy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313017328
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Disney's animated trailblazing, Dostoyevsky's philosophical neuroses, Hendrix's electric haze, Hitchcock's masterful manipulation, Frida Kahlo's scarifying portraits, Van Gogh's vigorous color, and Virginia Woolf's modern feminism: this multicultural reference tool examines 200 artists, writers, and musicians from around the world. Detailed biographical essays place them in a broad historical context, showing how their luminous achievements influenced and guided contemporary and future generations, shaped the internal and external perceptions of their craft, and met the sensibilities of their audience.

Author: William G. Doty
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817310061
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 601

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Book Description
Presenting major myth theorists from antiquity to the present, this work offers a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of myth. Rewritten and restructured, it reflects the increased interest in myth among both scholars and general readers since the publication of the first edition.