Myth and Method (Studies in Religion & Culture) - Softcover

Laurie L. Patton (editor) & Wendy Doniger (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813916577 ISBN 13: 9780813916576

Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 1996

Synopsis

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 25 years.

About this title

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.

From the Back Cover

'Myth and Method is a significant contribution to the study of religion, culture, method, and comparison, summarizing, with fairness, the crisis in the study of mythology that has developed in the last ten years. The volume strives for a balance between two centrifugal forces in academic discourse: the exclusive focus on method and an exclusive focus on area studies, addressing their strengths without aligning itself to the provincialism of either.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813916577
• ISBN 13: 9780813916576
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448