Mythological Forms Research Articles

Эстетика и культура: культурологическая интерпретация эстетических трансформаций в ХХ веке

<p>The article is devoted to the shifts that unfolded from the turn of the XIX–XX centuries to the turn of the XX–XXI centuries in the humanities. The American researcher D. Bachmann-Medic recently made an expert in determining the most significant processes in this sense in her book "Cultural Turns". In accordance with her concept, at that stage in history when there was a cultural turn, linguistics took a decisive position in the humanities, in particular, in the sciences of art. It can be argued that for decades much in the humanities has been determined precisely by the linguistic turn. In general, that's what happened. This is evidenced by the appearance of formalism in its Russian and German forms at the beginning of the twentieth century, and then structuralism and poststructuralism. The semiotic turn, which aims to study existing sign systems, including art, illustrates the provisions of the book by D. Bachmann-Medic. The problem arose only with aesthetics, which, as linguistics increasingly asserted itself as a leading science, demonstrated a crisis and a decline in its high status. In general, we can agree with this characteristic of the development of the humanities. But the author of the article insists on the need for a culturological reading of scientific processes. Drawing attention to the fact that both signs and methods imitating signs take part in the communication processes (and such methods are, among others, symbols), the author of the article, referring to Hegel's idea that history is the history of the Spirit, shows that forms that arose take part in the communication processes in different periods of the history of the Spirit, including the most archaic forms, to which Hegel referred symbolic, and, in general, mythological forms. The ways of communication, determined not by signs themselves, but by ways imitating signs, and these are symbols, are at the heart of not only sign systems, but also types of culture. Asserting this, the author relies on the idea of representing the poststructuralism of Yu. Kristeva, who distinguishes iconic and unfamiliar types of cultures in history. Based on this idea, the author shows that at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries, humanity is entering an era of radical cultural renewal, which has consequences for the humanities. This epoch is characterized by an exit from a culture functioning on the basis of a sign and an appeal to symbolic forms of thinking, which corresponds to P. Sorokin's concept of sociodynamics of culture, in which types of cultures are distinguished. At the turn of the XX–XXI centuries, a culture based on sensory reality and guided by the cognition of this reality by positivist methods is experiencing a decline, which explains the decline in the status of classical aesthetics. In this context, it becomes clear the final stage in the functioning of the humanities, at which a linguistic turn was possible. This is explained by the next extinction of positivism. Such its extinction will occur in an alternative culture, which activates forms of symbolic thinking. In this atmosphere there will be a revival of aesthetics as a science, in which the forms preceding the emergence of classical aesthetics will be actualized.</p>

Mongolian philosophical underpinnings of well-being: Mythology, shamanism and Mongolian Buddhism (before the development of modern nursing).

Mongolian philosophical underpinnings of well-being were expressed in the form of mythology, shamanism and Mongolian Buddhism before the development of modern nursing in Mongolia. Among these forms, the philosophical underpinnings of well-being, mythology and shamanism were formed as a result of the roots of Mongolian philosophy, whereas Buddhism spread relatively late. As a result of Mongolian mythology, an alternative approach called dom zasal was formed, and it remains one of the important foundations of the idea of well-being among people. Among the various concepts of shamanism, the concept of sunesu best expresses the underpinning of well-being, and the idea that healing and nursing care can be provided not only by those living in this world but also by spirit beings. Since Mongolians still use these ideas even in modern times, it should be noted that following them too narrowly may conflict with concepts based on scientific evidence. Along with the development of Buddhist philosophy in Mongolia, the Oriental philosophical underpinnings of well-being have spread. One of the most important concepts is the five basic elements of life (tavan mahabhutas) and three elements of the body (khii, sharand badgan). While developing the concepts of life and the body, the arga-bileg model (yin-yang in Chinese), developed at the theoretical level in Chinese philosophy, has become a popular basis for culture and customs among Mongolians. Therefore, it has been difficult to judge whether the origin of the arga-bileg model is Mongolian or Chinese; however, this is undeniably an important underpinning for well-being in both countries.

Миф как ключ к пониманию современной правовой культуры

The article substantiates the role and significance of myth as the most relevant way of understanding the peculiarities of legal culture. The ahistorical semantic core of the myth is emphasized, which remains unchanged in its basic semantic parameters. Legal culture is seen as fixing some aspects of the myth at the level of everyday communication. It is proved that the axiological parameters of existence are undoubtedly determined by the myths with which modern culture is overgrown, on the one hand, resurrecting long-forgotten mythological forms, and on the other hand, producing alternative mythologems. The mythologization of law appears in the form of such trends as a return to the application of customary law, leading to degradation processes in the field of legal culture and legal consciousness. It is concluded that the presence of a scientific paradigm does not guarantee that certain myths will not function in society since from the cultural sphere itself the myth began to gradually become actualized in the field of politics and law, which can be observed in modern realities. The article substantiates the duality inherent in modern law as a developing organism, which is due to the fact that in modern conditions law begins to act as a mirror of the transformations that occur in society at the level of everyday practices. An analysis of the paradoxes of the modern legal system of national societies indicates the limitations of such a phenomenon as the mythologization of law, which in modern conditions leads to the formation of legal universals as a product of the globalization process, the logical conclusion of which will be the organization of supranational institutions that regulate the sphere of legal relations.

Intertextuality: Allusion, Convention and Transformation in The Oresteia and Mourning Becomes Electra

This article aims to show the relationship between the plays of O’Neill and his European counterpart, Aeschylus. O’Neill subscribes to Greek mythology but modifies or transforms it in the American scenario. Our study of the plays has considered the way meanings are constructed by a network of cultural and social discourses which embody distinct codes, expectations and assumptions. Besides, the thematic and linguistic similarities and differences between the works of the European and that of the American author selected have enabled the researcher to have an insight into literary influences and affinities. This article has demonstrated that there is no end in the making of texts, as O’Neill has revisited classical literature to write his play, Mourning Becomes Electra. This paper argues that intertextuality must not be limited to influences as Aeschylus had no direct influence on O’Neill though O’Neill rewrites his play The Oresteia. Both writers have no biographical similarities nor do they come from the same generations. O’Neill alludes to Aeschylus’s Greek mythological form of play writing but transforms it into the American scenario, through American Realism. To analyse these plays, the critical approach used was Postmodernism since interetxtuality is the major tenet of postmodernism. The paper concludes that, although O’Neill subscribes to Greek mythology, he deviates from European playwrights of this dramatic convention. His work has aspects of American Realism, and he is equally a social critic who writes about the ills that plague his society, in order to create awareness in his countrymen.

The main aspects of the early «classical» stage of the formation of the Confucian doctrine of traditional China

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the main sources, works that developed and supplemented the main elements of Confucian doctrine that appeared during the lifetime of Confucius. The main data on the life and work of thinkers who developed and supplemented the teachings of the Great Teacher of antiquity, the main options for translating and interpreting the names of treatises and basic terminology are outlined. It outlines the main provisions and ideas of the treatise "Zhong Yun" written by Confucius 'direct students, which is of fundamental importance for the process of historical evolution of Confucian doctrine, and clarifies, details and deepens the theses of Confucius' main book "Lun Yu". Against the background of the basic traditional Chinese picture, one of the key principles of Confucianism is pointed out – the principle of the "golden mean", the critical importance of personal virtue of rulers, and the main approaches to determining the formula of human nature. It is determined that the subject of interest "Zhong Yun", broader than the basic treatise "Lun Yu" and denotes cosmogonic and moral properties of the spirit, more richly interprets the inner content of the fundamental category of humanity ("Ren") constructs an integral system of categories, the sources of which are in the depths of ancient Chinese mythology. The main concepts and meanings of the work "Da Xue" ("great teaching") are established, one of the most fundamental traditional categories of which is the concept of "where" – personal "grace", "achievement, acquisition", and the uniqueness and special place of a person in the universe is the ability to follow "due justice". The quintessence of the DA Xue worldview system is the presumption of immanent virtue of human nature, which should radiate from those in power in the form of "humanity"; the basic thesis of the treatise is the attitude according to which the ruler who "does not show" virtue is deprived of his right to rule. It is stated that the work named after the outstanding thinker of traditional China, Meng Tzu, was of fundamental importance for the long evolution of Confucianism. (Meng Ke), who not only expanded the leading principles of Confucius, but also improved the teachings of the great teacher by actualizing and considering new issues. This approach transformed the teachings of Kun Tzu into a harmonious construction of judgments, which later turned into the official government ideology and worldview system of the Great Chinese society, which has existed for thousands of years. It is to Meng Tzu that the orientation to consider human nature moral goes back, one of his most original ideas is the concept of the heart-mind, which is provided on the one hand by an innate, intuitive ability, moral instinct, and on the other by benevolence. On the contrary, the approaches of another thinker, Sun Tzu, were completely antagonistic to Meng Tzu's ideas and proved the conclusion that human nature is evil. Sun Tzu's concept is located exactly on the border between Confucianism and legalism, but the Thinker (unlike the legists) believed that it was not punishments and rewards that should curb the evil nature of a person, but moral improvement and high literature, that is, culture. Sun Tzu was the first in Confucianism and proved the concept of an enlightened monarchy based on the principle of both traditional morality and the authority and power of the law. Against the background of the study of significant monographic literature, conclusions are drawn about the almost instantaneous beginning of the complex deepening, improvement and development of teaching, already by the first students of Confucius. Confucianism was formed as a method of interpreting the ancient Chinese system of symbols and concepts, categories laid down in mythological form in an active, active spirit. The development of Confucian doctrine was due to the incorporation of elements of other teachings. Confucianism essentially developed through finding common ground with other Chinese doctrines. The key idea that emerged in the development of Confucianism is the statement that everything in a person, including his inner world, is just a reflection of the natural world, and the restoration of perfect social institutions will not mechanically restore perfect order in the Middle Kingdom. The core of the DA Xue ideological system is the assumption of the inner virtue (de) of human nature, which must be shown by those in power. In the course of its long evolution, Confucian traditional thought put certain fundamental problems and categories on the agenda much earlier than European thinkers did, of course, at the ancient, traditional level synchronous with that distant century

«Русская идея» Вяч. Иванова в контексте его философии культуры: опыт прочтения «Повести о Светомире царевиче»

The author refers to the most “mysterious” work of Vyacheslav Ivanov which was essentially his testament. It is shown that “The Tale of Tsarevich Svetomir” is the quintessence of Ivanov’s philosophical worldview. The author maintains that some key concepts of Ivanov’s cultural philosophy find their artistic embod­iment in the “Tale”: symbol, myth, Russian idea, element. The author examines the genre classification of the “Tale” and concludes that the Ivanov’s choice of the genre of the work was determined by the use of folklore material in the framework of modernist literary experiments, which is characteristic of the poet­ics of Silver Age. The distinctive features of Ivanov's symbolism in relation to the artistic trends of the Silver Age are also indicated. The mythological form of the “Tale” reflects Ivanov's philosophy of mythology which can be therefore un­derstood as a structure-forming principle of the artwork. This makes it possible to use the basic concepts of Ivanovs’s symbolism as hermeneutic keys to “The Tale of Tsarevich Svetomir”. The final part of the article justifies the hy­pothesis that the Russian idea qua myth constitutes the main content of “The Tale of Tsarevich Svetomir”

Approaches to Analysis of the Piano Works byIannis Xenakis

Different approaches to the analysis of Iannis Xenakis’ music have been studied by the example of his work Eonta (1963– 1964) for piano and brass quintet, First Concert for piano and symphonic orchestra Synaphaï (1969) and Second Concert for piano and symphonic orchestra Erikhthon (1974). An alternative method ofstudying Xenakis’ works based on the analysis of the experience of decoding computer programs typical for composer’s works studying has been proposed. An important feature of the investigation is an application of psychological analysis in studies of mythological plots of works, linked with the ancient Greek titles of the works by I. Xenakis along with comparative, phenomenological historical, musical analysis and statement of the computer programs’ use. As the result of alternative method of analysis, for the first time in musicology, new, tragic aspects of I. Xenakis’ personality, reflected in his works, were revealed. The phenomenon identified by M. Heidegger as “throwing into being” is presented in Xenakis’ work, in a form of mythology; the archetype being reflected in the music composition through the dramatic collision of the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra. Established conceptual link between the music of the composer and the philosophy of M. Heidegger gives a new viewpoint on the work of Xenakis

Soviet Atlantis: Between Science Fiction and Esoteric Communities

The paper concentrates on the history of the myth of Atlantis in twentieth-century Russian culture. It traces the transmission of Atlantis narratives starting from artistic and esoteric circles of the early twentieth century, through Soviet science fiction, to the esoteric revival of the 1980s. Contemporary fictional literature is understood as a modern, secularized form of mythology, intrinsically connected to traditional mythological narratives. The story of Atlantis, as one of these narratives, played an important role in Russian esoteric and fictional literature. The transmission of the Atlantean narrative through the Soviet period is analyzed herein and can benefit scholars in several ways. It shows how esoteric narratives can change and assume a fictional nature to survive in hostile and highly secularized environments. It also contributes to the understanding of particular aspects of contemporary Russian spiritual life related to the revival of Russian esoteric communities, which began during the Perestroika and continued after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It also contributes to the study of twentieth-century Russian cultural history, as well as to the academic study of esotericism.

Mito Tecnicizzato e mitologie della Ragione Il progetto romantico di una ‘nuova Mitologia’

The call for a “New Mythology” represents one of most controversial traits of German Romanticism. In the early works of F. Schlegel and F.W.J. Schelling, as in the so called Älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus, mythology stands for the Utopia of a universal reorganization of knowledge, capable of founding, after the Legitimationskrise of the modern era, a new horizon of shared ideas and values. Starting from an investigation of the mythological form as legitimation instrument and utopian catalyzer, this paper aims to shed light on the historical genesis of the “new Mythology” and its outcomes.

Mito Tecnicizzato e mitologie della Ragione Il progetto romantico di una ‘nuova Mitologia’

The call for a “New Mythology” represents one of most controversial traits of German Romanticism. In the early works of F. Schlegel and F.W.J. Schelling, as in the so called Älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus, mythology stands for the Utopia of a universal reorganization of knowledge, capable of founding, after the Legitimationskrise of the modern era, a new horizon of shared ideas and values. Starting from an investigation of the mythological form as legitimation instrument and utopian catalyzer, this paper aims to shed light on the historical genesis of the “new Mythology” and its outcomes.

ACTUALIZATION OF UKRAINIAN NATIONAL WORLD OUTLOOK CODES AS THE PRECONDITION OF WORLDVIEW TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE CONDITIONS OF “HYBRID WARS”

The article examines the national worldview codes as a prerequisite for national revival. The urgency of studying world outlook codes in modern Ukraine is primarily due to the actualization of powerful manipulative anti-Ukrainian processes that often take the form of “hybrid wars”. The purpose of the article is to show how and based on what principles the main national world outlook codes function during important historical transformations. For this purpose, the article investigates two information and cultural fields, which are based on world-view structures of the mythological type – national and imperial myths. These structures have their branched code systems, which are updated and described in the form of mythology, symbols and signs. Two important issues are additionally considered: encoding information through the codes of other systems and the use of different languages for transmitting the message, which may cause its distortion. The components of Ukraine’s image as the main mythological image with the national code base are analyzed. Much attention is paid to describing the basic code in the national unconscious of the Ukrainian people and its differences from the imperial view of the world. The historical retrospective is depicted on the example of the “Cossack era”, the activities of the “Central Council”, the “Time of Independence”, the “Orange Revolution – 2004”, the “Dignity Revolution – 2013–2014”, military operations in the ATO-zone, etc. Modern examples show the influence of actualization of relevant world outlook codes on political, social, and cultural life. The mechanisms of combining and enhancing world outlook codes, actualized in various spheres – politics, religion, culture, in particular, mass culture, social life – are discussed. The author also considers the distribution of influence of these codes on other areas of life (up to domestic realities) for describing the surrounding world by ordinary citizens. The idea of three waves of national revival in modern Ukraine is proposed. Attention is drawn to the possible risks of ceasing the nation-building processes in the present, as well as numerous perspectives should this “wave” be as productive as possible.

Comic Books as the Modern American Mythology

This article describes comics as a modern form of mythology. Comic book artists not only adapt well‑known American myths, such as the power of money (Batman) or America as a home for immigrants (Superman), but they also co‑create new ones along with other cultural works. For one of the characteristics of mythology is taming, explaining and commenting on reality in the form of fantastic tales. All of American history and the image of society can be found in comics. The lives of immigrants in the early twentieth century and experiences of the World Wars were illustrated in short comics that appeared in the daily press. The events of the Cold War such as the arms race and the Vietnam War were portrayed through the eyes of famous characters such as the Fantastic Four and Iron Man. Comics were also the target of Puritan society. Just like the Hays Code concerning cinema, the system of self‑censorship called the Comics Code limited artistic freedom and forced some artists to create underground. In turn, the counterculture of the 1960’s led to a gradual liberalization, allowing the adventures of African and Afro‑American superheroes to be published. Likewise, the economic crisis of the 1970s, problems in American society and the Reagan era are reflected in such comics as The Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. Surprisingly, the economic boom of the 1990s brought about a creative crisis and financial troubles among publishers. Last but not least, the events of 9/11 gave comic book stories new power when superheroes began to fight against terrorists and to explore the issue of what is more important: national security or civil liberties. All of this indicates and highlights that the history of American comic books is closely linked with the history of the American nation.

Herder on Aesthetic Imagination as a Source of Post-National Democratic Solidarity: A Contribution to Habermas’ Constitutional Patriotism

Constitutional patriotism has been criticized for providing too thin of an identity as the ground for common citizenship. Answering to this criticism, Habermas recently stressed the role of affective attachments in creating constitutional patriotic bonds. Still, an account of the type of imagination that could foster such post-national affective attachments is lacking. Drawing on Herder’s conception of culture, I argue that this requires a modern form of mythology. This would engage the interactive and communicative potential of poetic images in inclusionary ways that shape a common feeling of humanity. I also argue that Herder makes a case for a form of cosmopolitanism that finds the right balance between unity and diversity, universality and particularity. Thus, it shapes good dispositions that are conducive to tolerance and peace, avoiding, at the same time, the danger of imperialism or supranationalism. Thus enriched, Habermas’ constitutional patriotism requires supplementing the power of law to create bonds between people with the horizontal production of a cosmopolitan culture. This would include narratives that shape people’s imaginative capacity to see their own culture/nation both as a fallible part in the larger whole of mankind and as a free and equal contributor to the global advancement toward humanity.

Herder on esthetic imagination as a source of post-national democratic solidarity: A contribution to Habermas’ constitutional patriotism

Constitutional patriotism has been criticized for providing too thin an identity as the ground for common citizenship. Answering this criticism, Habermas recently stressed the role of affective attachments in creating constitutional patriotic bonds. Still, an account of the type of imagination that could foster such post-national affective attachments is lacking. Drawing on Herder's conception of political culture, I argue that constitutional patriotism requires a modern form of mythology. This would include narratives that shape people's imaginative capacity to see their own culture as a vulnerable and fallible part of a plural mankind and as a free and equal contributor to the global advancement toward humanity. In contrast to ideological mythology, an enlightened use of myth would engage the interactive and communicative potential of poetic images in ways that shape a common feeling of humanity. In short, Habermas’ constitutional patriotism requires supplementing the power of law to create bonds between people. This can be done through the cultivation of imaginative engagements with foreign others. Such imaginative engagements would shape good dispositions that are conducive to tolerance, peace and justice. This addition also allows Habermas’ argument for constitutional patriotism to better answer the communitarian accusation of supranationalism.

Einstein and Mythology: The Lengthier the Relations in a Myth the Greater its' Mass

The theory of relativity is considered form a perspective of folklore. Abstracted entities in the theory of relativity are stripped of units in order to provide explanation, to expose an ordinary meaning that employs a fulcrum for visual description. It is suggested that components of the theory’s construction are not only unusually compatible with religious and spiritual but are also unaccounted for scientifically; they may not render the expected power struggle of church doctrine with scientific notions but an opposite situation in which logical contradiction at the root level of physical meaning and symbolism is absent and might exist only with respect to active perceptual structuring, either functioning on the unknown or belief. This situation, is projected to exist in a volatile mythological form as a 'fulcrum' like bridge between points of dispersion in which the (invisible) entity of mass assumes an added social (or physical) weight imposed by the assumption of the existence of massless space; especially, should its' logically non excludable converse situation, of exclusively 'mass and force containing space' for all phenomenon, find future explanation and validity.

Re-imagining Olympus: Keats and the Mythology of the Individual Consciousness1

By the time John Keats began to write his great mythological works, the use of the classical world in poetry had become somewhat scorned in English literary circles, after the allegorical excesses of the eighteenth century. In Keats’ imagination, however, the Greco-Roman pantheon served not as a source of aesthetic embellishment but as part of a new, organic mythology of his own creation. For Keats, the self-exploration of a personal consciousness most closely approximates divinity, and such divinity depends upon interaction with the immediate, earthly space surrounding an individual. In this essay I explore Keats’ use of myth to access this personal identity, which he does frequently through three poetic techniques. The first I call “mythological sense,” meaning the apprehension of mythological allusions acting as a sixth sense for the narrator as he perceives his surroundings. The second is the physical boundedness that constricts mythological poems. The third is his use of embodied figures, initially anonymous mythological forms which appear first as objects in the narrator’s sensual experience, their mythological identifications secondary and often revealed only after their physical significance has been explored.

The translation of Psalm 89:13 and its implications

Psalm 89:13a can be translated: “You created north and south.” However, it can also be translated as “Zaphon and Yemin you created,” In the former case the phrase is seen as an indication of the extensiveness of the earth. In the latter the translation points to the mythological form of the hymn section (Ps 89:2-19) in which it appears. This article chooses for the mythological alternative and substantiates this position from the northern toponyms used in the hymn and the hymn’s obvious mythological structure.

Biblical Criticism and Secular Sex: Elizabeth Barrett's A Drama of Exile and Jean Ingelow's A Story of Doom

LIKE EARLIER LONG POEMS IN BIBLICAL SYMBOLISM BY BRITISH WOMEN (FOR example, Elizabeth Smith's The Brethren: A Poem in Four Books of 1787 and Barrett's own The Seraphim of 1838), (1) Elizabeth Barrett's A Drama of Exile tells a contemporary story in mythological form. (2) In contrast to later writings Christina Rossetti (Face of the Deep, for example), (3) or Alice Meynell (Christ in the Universe), (4) but in this respect like Jean Ingelow's epic retelling of the episode of Noah in A Story of Doom, (5) Elizabeth Barrett's poem has nothing to do with religion in any sense that would be understood a literal believer: the poem's meanings do not involve belief in the actual existence of its supernatural characters. Instead, its meanings involve two very real sorts of things, both of them quite historical. (6) The more obvious meaning is its critical treatment of gender, using the story of Eve to deny the patriarchal myth of female inferiority; (7) this gender theme is the core of the poem's social meanings. A more complex frame of the poem's meanings concerns hermeneutics, or the philosophy of interpretation. Consistently with the biblical criticism that arose in France in the eighteenth century, went to England and Germany, and became the Higher Criticism, Elizabeth Barrett writes a poem whose topics and contentions include the mental and cultural acts of interpretation--A Drama of Exile and Ingelow's A Story of Doom are about the interpretative acts which they (and their genres) perform in social and personal frames of reference and not only in the domain of literary simulations. In 1842, just two years before the first publication of A Drama of Exile, Barrett published in The Athenaeum a series of essays on the patristic writers, (8) dismissing their theology and their authority, but arguing learnedly about their poetry, principally from a philological point of view: Barrett is determined by no means to recognize a hierarchy, whether in the Church or in literature; To these 'Fathers,' as call them filially, with heads turned away, owe more reverence for the grayness of their beards than theological gratitude.... The fact is ... remarkable--how any body of Christian men can profess to derive their opinions from 'the opinions of the Fathers.' (9) Barrett writes that she is interested in their theme of love, and love is much; but we rather distrust them as commentators, and utterly refuse them the reverence of our souls (p. 514). Patristic exegesis (what she calls opinions) is important to both of the main themes of A Drama of Exile--in terms of gender, the law of the Father is repudiated for the love of the Mother; and in terms of the hermeneutic theme, the historical relativity and multiplicity of interpretations (rather than the dogma of the Church Fathers) calls all doctrines into question, as belief-systems are shown to be ephemeral human products and not eternal truths. In its rewriting of the story of the exile from Eden, Barrett's poem goes further than earlier poems women on this topic. In Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611), Aemilia Lanyer gives to the wife of Pontius Pilate a speech denying the exclusive guilt of Eve for the crime that brought exile from paradise. (10) Superimposing the Edenic myth over the story of the trial of Jesus Christ, Lanyer makes it clear that her theme is the moral and social problem encoded in the Genesis myth and its male exegetical history. But in A Drama of Exile, Barrett goes further: here, Eve positively embraces the mortal of the body outside the walls of the garden, outside the fatherly law. (11) Here, motherhood, incarnation, and the physical beauty of art all represent a positive preference for the tragically brief but embodied life, heavy with mortality (the thought of death being always imminent, / Immovable and dreadful in your life [ll. 1451-52]); (12) but that embodied becomes beautiful in its momentary fusions of bodily sense, and feeling, and mind--more beautiful far, according to Barrett's Eve, than the dualizing patristic myths that beggared the body to imperialize and legislate the soul. …

The Gender of the Trick: Female Tricksters and Male Narrators

Western theories of myth (Radin, Babcock-Abrahams) have defined the trickster as a particularly complex and ambivalent mythological figure involved with creative cosmological events and with mythical moments when the order of things, physical or social, is undergoing transformation. Tricksters in folktales are akin to, but not identical with, the mythological forms. While one prominent feature of the trickster's personality is gender ambiguity, the trickster is almost always conceived in Western comparative theory as a male who can transform or disguise himself as a female, usually with comical and highly disorderly results. These theories do not adequately address the very rich topic of female tricksters (makkāra) in Middle Eastern popular literature and folklore genres. The A. compares two female trickster tales performed by a single adult male narrator in Herat, Afghanistan, particularly the portrayals of female agency by a male speaker, with reference to theories of the trickster and of gender-centeredness in texts.

Pneumatologia Crucis: Reclaiming Theologia Crucis for a Theology of the Spirit Today

Of what are we speaking when we speak of the Holy Spirit? This most fundamental of all the questions asked in the field of Pneumatology has not received an answer widely accepted in the theology of the twentieth century. Karl Barth could write that the ‘Holy Spirit is nothing else than a certain relation of the Word to man’; while to Rudolph Bultmann, the Spirit was ‘the power of futurity,’ and was to be counted among the mythological forms of New Testament speech. Heribert Mühlen, on the other hand, interpreting the Latin pneumatological tradition in terms of the personalism of Ebner and Bubner, calls the Spirit ‘we,’ the unity of T and ‘thou.’ And David Gelpi reflects current feminist concerns when he designates God's Spirit as ‘The Divine Mother,’ the feminine in God. Finally, most recendy, Michael Welker has adopted the language of the natural sciences mediated through process thought and calls the Holy Spirit a ‘force field,’ while Jürgen Moltmann terms God's Spirit ‘the Spirit of Life’; a notion echoed in Mark Wallace's thesis that the Spirit is ‘the power of life-giving breath (r¨ah) within the cosmos who continually works to transform and renew all forms of life—both human and nonhuman.‘