Work on Myth

by Hans Blumenberg, Robert M. Wallace

Overview

In this rich examination of how we inherit and transform myths, Hans Blumenberg continues his study of the philosophical roots of the modern world. Work on Myth is in five parts. The first two analyze the characteristics of myth and the stages in the West's work on myth, including long discussions of such authors as Freud, Joyce, Cassirer, and Valéry. The latter three parts present a comprehensive account of the history of the Prometheus myth, from Hesiod and Aeschylus to Gide and Kafka. This section includes a detailed analysis of Goethe's lifelong confrontation with the Prometheus myth, which is a unique synthesis of "psychobiography" and history of ideas.

Work on Myth is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262521338
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	03/18/1988
Series:	Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought
Edition description:	UK ed.
Pages:	725
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hans Blumenberg, the creator of metaphorology, was one of the most important German philosophers of the latter 20th century.

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction
I Archaic Division of Powers
1 After the Absolutism of Reality
2 The Name Breaks into the Chaos of the Unnamed
3 `Significance'
4 Procedural Regulations
II Stories Become History
1 The Distortion of Temporal Perspective
2 Fundamental Myths and Art Myths
3 Myths and Dogmas
4 To Bring Myth to an End
III The Theft of Fire Ceases to Be Sacrilege
1 The Reception of the Sources Produces the Sources of the
Reception
2 Sophists and Cynics: Antithetical Aspects of the Prometheus
Material
3 Return from Existential Groundlessness
4 Aesthetic Brightening Up
IV Against a God, Only a God
Introduction
1 "Priming Powder for an Explosion"
2 A Conflict between Gods
3 Prometheus Becomes Napoleon, Napoleon Prometheus
4 Ways of Reading the "Extraordinary Saying"
V The Titan in His Century
1 Passage through the Philosophy of History
2 On the Rock of Mute Solitude Again
3 To Bring to an End, If Not Myth, Then a Least One Myth
Notes
Name Index

What People are Saying About This

Charles Larmore

Once again Hans Blumenberg offers us a brilliant historical study. Work On Myth extends to a new domain his critical concern with our need to find certainty and direction in a world fraught with contingency. Here, too, Blumenberg proves to be one of the great humanists of our time, discerning alternatives where before we saw necessities, showing myth to be a form of thought which is with us still.

From the Publisher

"This is a stunning philological work.. It patiently connects and disconnects logical, rhetorical, and historical links between dogma, myth, and ideology, their establishments in religion, law, and science, and the critiques that singe and sear them.... Robert M. Wallace's work is a model of scholarly translation, ambitious and carefully executed." Willis G. Regier, Modern Language Notes

Willis G. Regier

This is a stunning philological work. It patiently connects and disconnects logical, rhetorical, and historical links between dogma, myth, and ideology, their establishments in religion, law, and science, and the critiques that singe and sear them... Robert M. Wallace's work is a model of scholarly translation, ambitious and carefully executed.

Editorial Reviews

"This is a stunning philological work. . It patiently connects and disconnects logical, rhetorical, and historical links between dogma, myth, and ideology, their establishments in religion, law, and science, and the critiques that singe and sear them.... Robert M. Wallace's work is a model of scholarly translation, ambitious and carefully executed."--Willis G. Regier, "Modern Language Notes"

& quot; This is a stunning philological work. . It patiently connects and disconnects logical, rhetorical, and historical links between dogma, myth, and ideology, their establishments in religion, law, and science, and the critiques that singe and sear them.... Robert M. Wallace's work is a model of scholarly translation, ambitious and carefully executed.& quot; -- Willis G. Regier, Modern Language Notes

" This is a stunning philological work. . It patiently connects and disconnects logical, rhetorical, and historical links between dogma, myth, and ideology, their establishments in religion, law, and science, and the critiques that singe and sear them.... Robert M. Wallace's work is a model of scholarly translation, ambitious and carefully executed." -- Willis G. Regier, "Modern Language Notes"

-- Willis G. Regier, "Modern Language Notes"

From the Publisher