Myth: A Handbook

Abstract

Myth: A Handbook William G. Doty. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004. The words mythology and often appear in commentaries on American culture. Think of Henry Nash Smith's Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth (1950); Richard Slotkin's Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of American Frontier (1973); James Oliver Robertson's American Myth, American Reality (1980); or Morris Fiorina's Culture War?: The Myth of a Polarized America (2005). Conceptually speaking, this short list reminds us that is a cultural universal, with referents that range from stories of origin or compelling vision to demonstrable falsehood. Myth-focused scholars generally finesse this semantic diversity by Grafting a modest, special-purpose definition. Because critical alternatives in discussing originated at least as early as Plato and Aristotle, such a strategy is pragmatic way to get on with the of American isolationism, the of American omnipotence, the of American individualism, and so on. In teaching or writing on American mythological themes, I have often wanted a treatment of mythology that concisely guides our attention through rich critical-theoretical literature that accumulated during past century. No one is better suited to task than William Doty, whose Mythography: The Study of Myth and Rituals (1986/2000) stands as a rigorously thorough analysis of history, theory, and interpretation. However, with its nearly 600 pages on cosmology, archetypes, rituals, social functions, gender aspects, major figures, and conflicting interpretative schools, Mythography appeals more to specialist or to student needing an encyclopedic overview of theoretical literature. By comparison, Myth: A Handbook is a mere two hundred pages, offering visuals and resource lists that serve undergraduates and advanced scholars alike. Although that has been Doty's territory, numerous examples come from contemporary American culture. The exposition is organized into chapters: Definitions and Classifications, Examples and Texts, Scholarship and Approaches, and Contexts and Transmissions. Valuable appendixes come as Bibliography, Internet and Other Electronic Sources (annotated), and Glossary. The discussion of definition and classification emphasizes well-known conceptual alternatives and their adequacy for those narratives that have traditionally carried label. Is sacred, a holdover from archaic religion? Is a special kind of rhetoric? Does call for action by hearer? Does it represent cultural priorities, a sense of destiny? Does New Age movement - very prominent in United States at present-correctly view myths as models of spiritual development? Allied with these issues are ones related to function: Do myths, like Book of Genesis, offer accounts of creation, of ongoing cosmological processes? Do they teach us about love, sexuality, courage, community? Unlike so many interpretive pioneers, Doty does not subscribe to any essentialist characterization, choosing instead to highlight variability in phenomena associated with mythologies. He is firm, however, against those who lament loss of or claim that contemporary world has moved beyond myth, emphatically rejecting presupposed myth of mythlessness. In sketching these issues, Doty frequently references American films (Lord of Rings, The Matrix) and cultural heroes (Mother Teresa, John Wayne). The chapter Examples and Texts offers a variety of types and texts from historical and contemporary culture. These exemplars concretize themes of cultural origins; cycles of birth, death, and renewal; challenges to heroic response; scapegoating; trickster; and miraculous birth/divine child. Many texts are Native American, and it is especially informative to see them side by side with their Asian, European, Middle Eastern, and Mesoamencan counterparts. …