Translating Myth

Ever since Odysseus heard tales of his own exploits being retold among strangers, audiences and readers have been alive to the complications and questions arising from the translation of myth. How are myths taken and carried over into new languages, new civilizations, or new media? An international group of scholars is gathered in this volume to present diverse but connected case studies which address the artistic and political implications of the changing condition of myth – this most primal and malleable of forms. ‘Translation’ is treated broadly to encompass not only literary translation, but also the transfer of myth across cultures and epochs. In an age when the spiritual world is in crisis, Translating Myth constitutes a timely exploration of myth’s endurance, and represents a consolidation of the status of myth studies as a discipline in its own right.

This new edition of Anthology of Classical Myth offers selections from key Near Eastern texts—the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish), and Atrahasis; the Hittite Song of Emergence; and the flood story from the book of Genesis—thereby enabling students to explore the many similarities between ancient Greek and Mesopotamian mythology and enhancing its reputation as the best and most complete collection of its kind.

Women have been represented in art, literature, music, and more for decades, with the image of the woman changing through time and across cultures. However, rarely has a multidisciplinary approach been taken to examine this imagery and challenge and possibly reinterpret old women-related myths and other taken-for-granted aspects (e.g., grammatically inclusive gender). Moreover, this approach can better place the ideologies as myth creators and propagators, identify and deconstruct stereotypes and prejudices, and compare them across cultures with the view to spot universal vs. culturally specific approaches as far as women's studies and interpretations are concerned. It is important to gather these perspectives to translate and unveil new interpretations to old ideas about women and the feminine that are universally accepted as absolute, impossible to challenge, and invalidated truths. The Handbook of Research on Translating Myth and Reality in Women Imagery Across Disciplines is a comprehensive reference book that provides an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective on the perception and reception of women across time and space. It tackles various perspectives: gender studies, linguistic studies, literature and cultural studies, discourse analysis, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, etc. Its main objective is to present new approaches and propose new answers to old questions related to gender inequalities, stereotypes, and prejudices about women and their place in the world. Covering significant themes that include the ethics of embodiment, myth of motherhood at the crossroad of ideologies, translation of women’s experiences and ideas across cultures, and discourses on women’s rehabilitation and dignification across centuries, this book is critical for linguists, professionals, researchers, academicians, and students working in the fields of women’s studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and literature, as well as other related categories such as political studies, education studies, philosophy, and the social sciences.

How did a loner destined for a niche domestic audience become one of the most famous writers alive? A "fascinating" look at the "business of bringing a best-selling novelist to a global audience" (The Atlantic)―and a “rigorous” exploration of the role of translators and editors in the creation of literary culture (The Paris Review). Thirty years ago, when Haruki Murakami’s works were first being translated, they were part of a series of pocket-size English-learning guides released only in Japan. Today his books can be read in fifty languages and have won prizes and sold millions of copies globally. How did a loner destined for a niche domestic audience become one of the most famous writers alive? This book tells one key part of the story. Its cast includes an expat trained in art history who never intended to become a translator; a Chinese American ex-academic who never planned to work as an editor; and other publishing professionals in New York, London, and Tokyo who together introduced a pop-inflected, unexpected Japanese voice to the wider literary world. David Karashima synthesizes research, correspondence, and interviews with dozens of individuals—including Murakami himself—to examine how countless behind-the-scenes choices over the course of many years worked to build an internationally celebrated author’s persona and oeuvre. His careful look inside the making of the “Murakami Industry" uncovers larger questions: What role do translators and editors play in framing their writers’ texts? What does it mean to translate and edit “for a market”? How does Japanese culture get packaged and exported for the West?

Much of the theorizing about myth in philosophy and religious studies grows out of efforts to understand the classics and the Bible. In the case of the classics, the presence of myth has been taken for granted, and conclusions reached about Greek and Roman mythology have spurred generalizations about myth. In the case of the Bible, however, the existence of myth has been contested. In fact, Judaism and Christianity are regularly praised for their nonmythic outlook. Conclusions reached about the presence or absence of myth in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament have led to generalizations about myth per se. Many of the essays in this volume apply theories of myth to classical, biblical, and ancient Near Eastern cases, but in so doing they draw conclusions about the nature of myth itself. Those essays that criticize past applications make generalizations as weIl. By no means has aIl theorizing about myth from philosophy and religious studies centered on the ancient world, and this volume contains selections from theories in both disciplines that stern from reflections on the nature of science, language, knowledge, and reality.

In the context of the rise of reactionary politics across the globe, this book seeks new ways of developing solidarity across religious, political and economic differences. Drawing on an increasingly influential Christian theological movement, postliberalism, it claims that the dominance of liberal, secular rationality has blinded people to the fundamental role of transcendence and myth in developing solidarity. The result is either atrophy, or a retrenching in divisive myths of faith, race, nation or economic status. Liberalism is now a dominant force across the globe. But its resonance in the Anglo-Saxon West, from which it originates and has been most fully realized, is relatively underexplored. The book thus follows two simultaneous lines of enquiry. Firstly, a genealogical study of social scientific and policy iterations of the relationship between belief and solidarity in the Anglo-Saxon West, placing postliberal theory into dialogue with the sociology and anthropology of religion, politics and economics. Secondly, it draws from original ethnographic research with groups in London, UK, that seek to develop solidarity in the face of deep-seated difference. By bringing a new way of framing these contentious debates about contemporary society, this research offers tools for more productive conversations around religious and political topics, in particular concluding with a clear policy proposal. It is, therefore, a useful resource for both academics of theology and religious studies, political philosophy, sociology and anthropology; and for politicians, policy makers and practitioners hoping to develop solidarity in the modern world.

This PDF is multilingual, where the German original text has been presented alongside the Standard-translation© in English, so that any one being sufficiently conversant in German is able to ascertain the correctness of the translation and also benefit (as hinted by the Author) from the exposure to the German language the book has originally been written in. Also the emphases (in bold text) on words/phrases used in original German is reflected in this new edition (emphases match the original writings). Any remarks or amendments are invited at [email protected]. Preview available. For a hardcopy edition please see below*. ___________________________________________________________________________ Cult-Magic and Myth / Kultmagie und Mythos (Standard-translation©) is part of the monumental series Hortus Conclusus of spiritual teachings by German poet, writer and painter, Bô Yin Râ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken) (1876-1943). The Hortus Conclusus consists of 32 books as well as spiritual paintings. This edition also includes the original emphases (of font) as intended by the Author. BÔ YIN RÂ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken) was a German writer, poet and painter (1876-1943). He lived in Germany (Frankfurt, Görlitz, Berlin, Munich, Königsberg), Austria (Vienna), France (Paris), and Switzerland (Horgen, Massagno). Bô Yin Râ expressed his insights into the metaphysical structures of the eternal spiritual reality through art and writings. His spiritual written teaching Hortus Conclusus is compiled into a series of 32 books. As a whole, it consists of books as well as spiritual paintings. – GERMAN BÔ YIN RÂ FOUNDATION (to learn more about Bô Yin Râ, his life, his writing and painting, visit www.bo-yin-ra-stiftung.de) To honour the gods, give thanks to them or to pacify the monstrous amongst them was to be the pursuit of man whose belief had shaped the myth. None of this seemed possible to him other than through external works. But soon he believed to feel that the form of the ritual was important when carrying out these acts. Not every custom when making sacrifices, giving thanks or singing praises seemed to have the same value in the estimation of the gods. Therefore he rejected the forms of reverence and sacrifice which failed to meet with the approval of the gods, and practised other forms which would, as he believed, bring their favour. Providing a greater guarantee for the fulfilment of his own wishes led him to adhere strictly to apparently secure, tried and tested customs. The cult of the gods had found its established form. (...) Let us speak here of the cult inasmuch as it makes itself felt as magic for the sake of man! The Godhead which needs man in order to reveal itself to man, truly does not require a cult for its own sake. However, the cult which effects itself as magic can free the spirit of man from its sleep in the ‘animal’, and open up to it a realm of influence which teaches it to recognise that it can even get help where all ‘animal’ might senses its limits. – CULT-MAGIC AND MYTH They have never heard the teaching telling them of the duty to use life on this earth in the way that it becomes a source of continual happiness. (...) But those who would attain happiness must strive alone for their happiness; everything else they would like to achieve must be subordinated to this striving and wisely woven into it. – – (...) No other task can be higher than the duty to attain the purest enduring happiness and to increase this Earth’s happiness within oneself and thereby in others too. – THE BOOK ON HAPPINESS What I have to say is beyond belief and disbelief! I'm not a prophet who needs "confessors" – nor a fighter, who is looking for "followers" behind him, but only a mediator of spiritual insights about the real home of mankind. My writings shouldn't be "believed" but taken up objectively, to awaken innermost experience. – ABOUT MY WRITINGS Countless people – and in truth not just those whose souls are the most frigid – continually await an immense experience to shake their innermost depths. Since all their longing is incapable of summoning up this experience, they rush restlessly searching from experience to experience, caught up in the delusion that the hoped for experience is bound to be attained, if they could only locate the powerful phenomenon capable of overpowering their souls with its immensity. – SHOWING THE WAY A yearning is passing through the world, – a consuming desire, – and every soul not yet completely hardened and incapable of awakening feels gripped by it. (...) One ‘may’ once again believe in things which cannot been proven by 'experiments’, and one is no longer mocked for recognising that we are surrounded and influenced by the invisible, even if we cannot solve its mystery… The ‘miraculous’ would again become reality; the realm of faith extends its borders. – THE BOOK ON THE LIVING GOD The design of pages, emphases placed on particular words, use of spaces, long hyphens, exclamation marks etc. — included in this English translation enables ‘heart-Readers’ to meditate, to breathe-in while willingly absorbing the text as a ‘spiritual sustenance’. – Sarah Havah Theebaum, historian of ideas, painter, poet. ___________________________________________________________________________ The Standard-translation© into English * Currently the hardcopy/hardcover edition of this book is published on the Amazon sites via the Kindle Direct Publishing - and is now available through all major Amazon country sites (including UK, Canadian and Australian sites). This is the U.S. Amazon link (on other Amazon sites you can look up available publications by searching for Books to Light or Posthumus Projects): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTV3G2C7 for Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CTV3G2C7

Weiss examines texts that reference Asian, North African, or Middle Eastern societies and their imaginaries, and, equally important, engage questions of individual and communal identity that issue from transformative encounters.