Wendy Doniger's foundational study is both modern in its engagement with a diverse range of religions and refreshingly classic in its transhistorical, cross-cultural approach. By responsibly analyzing patterns and themes across context, Doniger reinvigorates the comparative reading of religion, tapping into a wealth of narrative traditions, from the instructive tales of Judaism and Christianity to the moral lessons of the Bhagavad Gita. She extracts political meaning from a variety of texts while respecting the original ideas of each. A new preface confronts the difficulty of contextualizing the comparison of religions as well as controversies over choosing subjects and positioning arguments, and the text itself is expanded and updated throughout.
Wendy Doniger is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She is also a professor in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations and a member of the university's Committee on Social Thought. Her books include Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities; Other Peoples' Myths: The Cave of Echoes, and The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade.
Table of Contents
Preface to the Updated Edition: Context and History Acknowledgments Introduction: Myth and Metaphor 1. Microscopes and Telescopes 2. Dark Cats, Barking Dogs, Chariots, and Knives 3. Implied Spiders and the Politics of Individualism 4. Micromyths, Macromyths, and Multivocality 5. Mother Goose and the Voices of Women 6. Textual Pluralism and Academic Pluralism Notes Bibliography Index
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Wendy Doniger
Of all things made with words, myths span the widest of human concerns. -- From The Implied Spider
