Myth and method

Laurie L. Patton, Wendy Doniger

University of Virginia Press, 1996 - History - 416 pages

In the wake of the elegant master theories of Joseph Campbell, Mircea Eliade, Georges Dumezil, and Claude Levi-Strauss, how are mythology and the comparative study of religion to be understood? In Myth and Method, a leading team of scholars assesses the current state of the study of myth and explores the possibilities for charting a methodological middle course between the comparative and the contextual issues raised in the last ten years. In confronting these tension, they provide an outline of the most troubling questions in the field and offer a variety of responses to them.

Contents

• MYTH METHOD: 4
• Does Myth Have a Future?: 82
• PART II: 107
• Dumezil the IndoEuropeans and the Third Function: 128
• Madness in Method plus a Plea for Projective: 147
• PART III: 161
• A Study of the Chinese: 177
• The Exchange of Words and Wealth: 208
• PART IV: 245
• Myth and Meaning: 300
• An Eliadean: 327
• A Mythos Transformed: 352
• Afterword: 390
• Index: 403

About the author

Laurie L. Patton is Assistant Professor of Early Indian Religions at Emory University. In addition to journal articles on the topics of early Indian religions, comparative mythology, and theory in the study of religion, she is the author of Myth as Argument: The Mrhaddevata as Canonical Commentary. Wendy Doniger is Mircea Eliade Professor of History of Religions at the University of Chicago. She is the author of several books on Indian mythology and the comparative study of mythology, including The Origin of Evil in Hindu Mythology; Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities; and Other Peoples' Myths.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Myth and method; Studies in religion and culture
• Editors: Laurie L. Patton, Wendy Doniger
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 1996
• ISBN: 0813916577, 9780813916576
• Length: 416 pages
• Subjects: History / Civilization; Social Science / Folklore & Mythology