The Poetics of Myth

by Eleazar M. Meletinsky, Guy Lanoue (Translator), Alexandre Sadetsky (Translator)

Overview

'Serious students will savor Meletinsky's rich and complex book. The opening section alone is valuable for its erudite examination of modern theory about myth, with special attention to Levi-Strauss and the structuralists. Meletinsky grasps the essentials of theories he discusses and makes clear distinctions between them Highly recommended for upper division undergraduates, graduate students and teachers/scholars of myth.' - Choice

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138141568
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/27/2016
Series:	Theorists of Myth
Pages:	516
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Forward Biographical Note Preface to the Russian Edition (1976) Part 1: Modern Theories of Myth and Approaches to Literature Part 2: The Classic Forms of Myth and Their Expression in Narrative Folklore Part 3: Mythification in Twentieth-Century Literature Bibliography Appendices Subject Index and Glossary Index of Literary Works Name Index

Editorial Reviews

"Serious students will savor Meletinsky's rich and complex book. The opening section alone is valuable for its erudite examination of modern theory about myth, with special attention to Levi-Strauss and the structuralists. Meletinsky grasps the essentials of theories he discusses and makes clear distinctions between them...Highly recommended for upper division undergraduates, graduate students, and teachers/scholars of myth." -- Choice
"The Poetics of Myth merits attention for its claim that myth is always expanding: that stories told may always be retold, that a mythology received may also be renewed, that symbolic world-making is never quite complete." -- Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher

A translation of the 1976 Russian , purged of its Soviet references. Melitinsky has written widely on folklore and mythology, and is part of a group sometimes identified as the Moscow branch of the Tartu School of semioticians, associated with the work of Yuri Lotman. He argues that myth survives today as a form of thought, and that myth emerges in the 20th century's great literature ever more frequently as the rhetorical strategies of realism and objective observation reveal themselves to be inadequate to describe modern concerns. He combines an index and glossary of concepts and personae without pronunciation. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews