Current Search:  Myths in literature (x)

View All Items

  • CSV Spreadsheet
(1 - 4 of 4)
Authority and molestation in Jeanette Winterson's "Sexing the Cherry"
Title
Authority and molestation in Jeanette Winterson's "Sexing the Cherry".
Creator
Smith, Rhonda C., Florida Atlantic University, Furman, Andrew
Abstract/Description
Jeanette Winterson's novel Sexing the Cherry addresses literary genres in which women's voices have been silenced or marginalized, demonstrating John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill's claim that only when women have "lived in a different country from men and [have] never read any of their writings [will] they have a literature of their own" (207). This philosophy may be viewed in light of Edward Said's theory of colonization in which he argues that a people who colonize by violence...
Show moreJeanette Winterson's novel Sexing the Cherry addresses literary genres in which women's voices have been silenced or marginalized, demonstrating John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill's claim that only when women have "lived in a different country from men and [have] never read any of their writings [will] they have a literature of their own" (207). This philosophy may be viewed in light of Edward Said's theory of colonization in which he argues that a people who colonize by violence maintain authority, while those people who are colonized are subject to "the paternalistic arrogance of imperialism" (Culture xviii). Winterson's desire to reclaim the authority of women illustrates her need for permission to narrate and to be "taken out of the Prism of [her] own experience" (Winterson, Into 17). As a result, she rewrites history, myth, fairy tale, and pornography, reversing the traditional gender roles and inverting the gender hierarchy. Women, in Sexing the Cherry maintain the authority and the Power to molest the now weaker sex, man.
Show less
Date Issued
1999
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15715
Subject Headings
Winterson, Jeanette,--1959---Sexing the cherry, Women in literature, Violence in literature, Myth in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
Theorizing the Goddess in Feminist Mythopoeic Fantasy
Title
Theorizing the Goddess in Feminist Mythopoeic Fantasy.
Creator
Taylor, Taryne Jade, Martin, Thomas L., Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description
In my thesis, I examine the function and treatment of goddesses in six modern feminist mythopoeic fantasy novels by Y olen, Shinn, and Harris. In these novels, the goddesses and their worshippers serve as the agents of socio-political change within the secondary world, inducing changes that end with the ultimate transformation of oppressive social structures. Acknowledging these goddesses and incorporating them into the fabric of communal life, the protagonists, and ultimately entire...
Show moreIn my thesis, I examine the function and treatment of goddesses in six modern feminist mythopoeic fantasy novels by Y olen, Shinn, and Harris. In these novels, the goddesses and their worshippers serve as the agents of socio-political change within the secondary world, inducing changes that end with the ultimate transformation of oppressive social structures. Acknowledging these goddesses and incorporating them into the fabric of communal life, the protagonists, and ultimately entire societies, are able transcend issues of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and religion, in order to create a peaceful and prosperous society. These novels work through many of the issues troubling modern day feminist theorists and make important contributions to the discourse of feminist spirituality and feminist theory as a whole. Extrapolating both a theory and praxis from the texture of these fantasy narratives, I suggest that these stories offer a way to transcend dichotomous thinking and escape the current stagnation of spirituality based approaches to feminism.
Show less
Date Issued
2008
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000968
Subject Headings
Myth in literature, Feminism in literature, Fantasy fiction, American--Criticism and interpretation, Spirituality in literature
Format
Document (PDF)
Re-visioning the Fall: Mythic implications of Archibald MacLeish's "Songs for Eve"
Title
Re-visioning the Fall: Mythic implications of Archibald MacLeish's "Songs for Eve".
Creator
Felt, Richard Thomas., Florida Atlantic University, Pearce, Howard D.
Abstract/Description
The history of Western thought is permeated by a dualistic habit of mind which prevents a deeper connection with that primordial world mediated by myth and archetypes. Nietzsche described this dualism as the imposition of rationalistic Apollonian values on the far older tradition of intuitive Dionysian modes of being. Extending this concept further, James Hillman describes this same phenomenon as a lack of soul which he calls psyche. Without a reconnection to psyche, Western civilization is...
Show moreThe history of Western thought is permeated by a dualistic habit of mind which prevents a deeper connection with that primordial world mediated by myth and archetypes. Nietzsche described this dualism as the imposition of rationalistic Apollonian values on the far older tradition of intuitive Dionysian modes of being. Extending this concept further, James Hillman describes this same phenomenon as a lack of soul which he calls psyche. Without a reconnection to psyche, Western civilization is schizoid and incomplete. Using these insights as a basis for critical exploration, this thesis examines Archibald MacLeish's 1954 poem cycle Songs for Eve and its inversion of the traditional Western archetypes of the Fall and woman's role in it. By rejecting the traditional Western allegorical interpretation and reinstating the older Dionysian understanding of the Fall, MacLeish awakens the reader to a new and deeper understanding of this pervasive mythic motif.
Show less
Date Issued
2002
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12891
Subject Headings
MacLeish, Archibald,--1892---Songs for Eve., Myth in literature., Archetype (Psychology) in literature.
Format
Document (PDF)
bones of the ox
Title
The bones of the ox: how J.R.R. Tolkien's cosmology reflects ancient Near Eastern creation myths.
Creator
Dutton, Amanda M., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description
Scholars have well established the influence of the Old and Middle English, Norse, Welsh, and also Medieval Latin and Christian mythologies that influenced the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. In particular, the mythology contained in The Silmarillion, specific the cosmology, behaves as sacred texts do in the primary world and mirrors a number of extant mythologies when they are directly compared. Several scholars have note, but as yet no one has studied in depth, the relationship between the...
Show moreScholars have well established the influence of the Old and Middle English, Norse, Welsh, and also Medieval Latin and Christian mythologies that influenced the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. In particular, the mythology contained in The Silmarillion, specific the cosmology, behaves as sacred texts do in the primary world and mirrors a number of extant mythologies when they are directly compared. Several scholars have note, but as yet no one has studied in depth, the relationship between the cosmology the The Silmarillion to that of a number of extant ancient Near Eastern mythologies. This thesis seeks to address that gap in the scholarship by specifically exploring Tolkien's mythological creation story in relation to those of the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Abrahamic of the Near East. Such a comparative study reveals a number of structural and thematic parallels that attest to the complexity of Tolkien's work that and can be used to argue that his mythology can be considered as well-developed and surprisingly authentic as any of these ancient mythological traditions.
Show less
Date Issued
2012
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355562
Subject Headings
Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Myths in literature, Symbolism in literature, Cosmology, Middle Eastern literature, Criticism and interpretation
Format
Document (PDF)