The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960

Why do contemporary writers use myths from ancient Greece and Rome, Pharaonic Egypt, the Viking north, Africa''s west coast, and Hebrew and Christian traditions? What do these stories from premodern cultures have to offer us? examines how myth has shaped writings by Kathy Acker, Margaret Atwood, William S. Burroughs, A. S. Byatt, Neil Gaiman, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Jeanette Winterson, and others, and contrasts such canonical texts with fantasy, speculative fiction, post-singularity fiction, pornography, horror, and graphic narratives. These artistic practices produce a feeling of meaning that doesn''t need to be defined in scientific or materialist terms. Myth provides a sense of rightness, a recognition of matching a pattern, a feeling of something missing, a feeling of connection. It not only allows poetic density but also manipulates our moral judgments, or at least stimulates us to exercise them. Working across genres, populations, and critical perspectives, Kathryn Hume elicits an understanding of the current uses of mythology in fiction.>

About the author

Kathryn Hume is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor Emerita at Penn State University, USA. She is the author of Fantasy and Mimesis (1984), Pynchon’s Mythography (1987), Calvino’s Fictions (1992), American Dream, American Nightmare (2000), and Aggressive Fictions (2012).

Product details

• Authors: Kathryn Hume
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 26.08.2021
• EAN: 9781501378249
• ISBN: 978-1-5013-7824-9
• No. of pages: 208
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Folklore & Mythology, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, Folklore, myths & legends, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Folklore studies / Study of myth (mythology), LITERARY CRITICISM / Novel as Form