ABSTRACT

Laurence Coupe offers students a comprehensive overview of the development of myth, showing how mythic themes, structures and symbols persist in literature and entertainment today. This introductory volume:

  • illustrates the relation between myth, culture and literature with discussions of poetry, fiction, film and popular song
  • explores uses made of the term ‘myth’ within the fields of literary criticism, anthropology, cultural studies, feminism, Marxism and psychoanalysis
  • discusses the association between modernism, postmodernism, myth and history
  • familiarizes the reader with themes such as the dying god, the quest for the Grail, the relation between ‘chaos’ and ‘cosmos’, and the vision of the end of time
  • demonstrates the growing importance of the green dimension of myth.

Fully updated and revised in this new edition, Myth is both a concise introduction and a useful tool to students first approaching the topic, while also a valuable contribution to the study of myth.

chapter |12 pages

INTRODUCTION

part |3 pages

PART I Reading myth

chapter 1|21 pages

ORDER

chapter 2|22 pages

CHAOS

chapter 3|24 pages

ENDINGS

part |2 pages

PART II Mythic reading

chapter 4|33 pages

TRUTH

chapter 5|29 pages

PSYCHE

chapter 6|34 pages

HISTORY

chapter 7|34 pages

EARTH