Myth Symbol And Ritual Elucidatory Paths To The Fantastic Unreality

The present volume insists on the policies derived from the social ideas generated by myths, the updating of myths as an arsenal of social pedagogy, on the ethnic condition of the relevance of myths, but also on the resumption by mass media of the pejorative sense of the myth. This volume is part of the scientific series “Mythology and Folklore”.

In the book are presented studies of 18 renowned researchers focussing on the verbal aspects of everyday magic, placing in the centre the richest and most poetic manifestation of verbal magic – the charm or incantatio. Incantations are in Europe well spread folklore genre, which contain very old magical elemrnts. The book covers wide spectrum of regions, from United Kingdom to Russia and Iran, and includes also Slovenia. The researchers have devoted their attention to phenomenological and theoretical studies of incantatio, and have discussed various topics, from the origin of charms and ancient European magical practices, to the receptions and diffusions of different types of charms. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Knjiga ('Zagovori in zagovarjanje: Študije o magičnem v vsakdanjem življenju') je skupno delo osemnajstih uglednih evropskih raziskovalcev verbalne magije in zdravljenja z zagovori. Prispevki so posvečeni fenomenološkim in teoretskim raziskavam zagovarjanja, pri čemer avtorji uporabljajo številne metodološke pristope in obravnavajo zelo različne teme, od vprašanj izvora ustnega izročila do recepcije in razširjenosti zagovarjanja. Osrednja tema raziskav je zagovarjanje, ki je najbolj poetična oblika besedne magije. Zagovori so v Evropi še vedno razširjen žanr in vsebujejo zelo stare elemente magije. Poleg pestrega metodološkega spektra zaobjemajo študije tudi široko geografsko območje: od Anglije do Rusije in Irana, vključujejo tudi Slovenijo.

Presenting major myth theorists from antiquity to the present, this work offers a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of myth. Rewritten and restructured, it reflects the increased interest in myth among both scholars and general readers since the publication of the first edition.

This book, developed out of the 1969 Sather lectures at Berkeley, California, confronts a wide range of problems concerning the nature, meaning and functions of myths. Professor Kirk's aim is to introduce a degree of coherence and of critical awareness into a subject that arouses profound interest today, but which for too long has been the target of excessive theorizing and interdisciplinary confusion between anthropologists, sociologists, classicists, philosophers and psychologists. Professor Kirk begins by discussing the relation of myths to rituals and folktales, and the weakness of universalist theories of function. He then subjects Lévi-Strauss's structuralist theory to an extended exposition and criticism; he considers the character and meaning of ancient Near Eastern myths, their influence on Greece, and the special forms with rational modes of thought, and finally, he assesses the status of myths as expressions of the unconscious, as elements of dreams, universal symbols, as accidents along the way to some narrative objective. The result is a significant critical venture into the history and philosophy of thought, imagination, symbol and society.--From publisher description.

Mircea Eliade--one of the most renowned expositors of the psychology of religion, mythology, and magic--shows that myth and symbol constitute a mode of thought that not only came before that of discursive and logical reasoning, but is still an essential function of human consciousness. He describes and analyzes some of the most powerful and ubiquitous symbols that have ruled the mythological thinking of East and West in many times and at many levels of cultural development.