Organization: Ana Raquel Fernandes, José Pedro Serra, Rui Carlos Fonseca Published by: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015 Extract

Book Description

Although positivism dismissed myths as childish fancy, bound to be superseded by reason, there has been a continuous reappraisal of the power of myths since the 19th century. Once viewed as primitive and unreliable accounts and an inadequate and distorted form of knowledge, myths came to be perceived as exemplary narratives, consisting of rich and complex symbolic constructs that carry meaning and a connection to reality. Myths then came to be regarded as a privileged expression of the human soul and of its possibly submerged and unconscious abysses and dramas. Rather than inherently obscure and elusive to a rational grasp, mythical narratives would therefore be driven by logical reasoning, giving shape to a particular worldview of life and humankind. The enduring power of mythical narrative is attested to by its very plasticity, subject to multiple recreations informed by changing concerns and insights. Mythical narratives have thus attracted the interest of various disciplines, from ethnology and history to philosophy, literature, sociology, politics, the history of religions and art history. This interdisciplinary volume studies how myths are inscribed and recycled within both individual and collective heritage, and examines the personal and political implications of multifaceted engagement with myths as one of the forms through which societies try to make sense of their perplexities.

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
Chapter One ................................................................................................. 6
Recycling Myths: Voices in the Dark: Dreams, Confidences, Sisters
Marina Warner
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 29
Nordic Myths in William Morris’ Works: Contextualization
and Recontextualization
Alessandro Zironi
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 57
From Asia to Scandinavia: The Myth of the Norse Gods Æsir
Carla Del Zotto
Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 67
Myths around the Dolphin in Greek Religion
Jordi Redondo
Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 90
Electra, the Voice of Hades
José Pedro Serra
Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 104
Aspects of Christian European Myth
Adelaide Meira Serras
Chapter Seven ...........................................................................................116
Myths (Re)Told in the Iconography of Elizabeth I
Mª de Jesus Crespo Candeias V. Relvas
Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 124
The Power of Choice in William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress
Marcia Bessa Marques
Table of Contents
vi
Chapter Nine ............................................................................................ 134
Recasting Myths in Contemporary Short Fiction: British and Portuguese
Women Authors
Ana Raquel Fernandes
Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 148
The Loneliness and the Resignation of Queen Dido in Brodskij’s
Poem Dido and Aeneas
Nicoletta Bruno
Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 161
“To marry myth to actuality”: Louis MacNeice’s Use of the Mythos
in his Poetic Journals
Mélanie White
Chapter Twelve ........................................................................................ 170
A Return to Revivalist Myth in Finnegans Wake
Philip Keel Geheber
Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 184
Biblical Myths of the City in Dos Passos’s Manhattan Transfer
Fernanda Luísa Feneja
Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 197
The Tree and the Myth of Creation in J.R.R. Tolkien
Angélica Varandas
Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 213
“Good policy, is it not, Senhor[es]?”: The Myth of the Superiority
of English and the Treatment of Loanwords in the Oxford English
Dictionary
Rita Queiroz de Barros
Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 226
Catholicism and the Italian Fascist Re-writing of History during the 1930s
Jan Nelis
Contributors ............................................................................................. 239