The Productions of Time: A Study of the Human Imagination - Hardcover

Dolzani; Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0228005582 ISBN 13: 9780228005582

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2021

Synopsis

Myth criticism flourished in the mid\-twentieth century under the powerful influence of Canadian thinker Northrop Frye. It asserted the need to identify common, unifying patterns in literature, arts, and religion. Although it was eclipsed by postmodern theories that asserted difference and conflict, those theories proved incapable of inspiring solidarity or guiding social action. The Productions of Time argues for a return to myth criticism in order to refine and extend its vision.\n\nWith the aim of rehabilitating myth criticism for our time, Michael Dolzani sketches an anatomy of the imagination as demonstrated in the total body of its productions, including literature, mythology, the arts, popular culture, and religious and political texts. Dolzani situates a vast panoply of images, character types, plot structures, themes, and genres to better understand their purposes, their recurrences across broad spans of history, and their interrelations. Illustrating the relationship between mythology and history, The Productions of Time proposes a symbolic language as a way of enabling dialogue across ideological and individual differences.\n\nArguing for the ethical and intellectual necessity of conceiving a unifying pattern that transcends differences, The Productions of Time demonstrates that imagination is part of the human inheritance, common to all, not just to poets and mystics.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Dolzani is professor in the Department of English at Baldwin Wallace University.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0228005582
• ISBN 13: 9780228005582
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 468