Myth in the Modern Novel

Imagining the Absolute

Liisa Steinby

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9783111026343
• eBook ISBN: 9783111027005
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Folklore & Mythic Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Myth in the Modern Novel: Imagining the Absolute posits a twofold thesis. First, although Modernity is regarded as an era dominated by science and rational thought, it has in fact not relinquished the hold of myth, a more "primitive" form of thought which is difficult to reconcile with modern rationality. Second, some of the most important statements as to the reconcilability of myth and Modernity are found in the work of certain prominent novelists. This book offers a close examination of the work of eleven writers from the late eighteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first, representing German, French, American, Czech and Swedish literature. The analyses of individual novels reveal a variety of intriguing views of myth in Modernity, and offer an insight into the "modernizing" transformations myth has undergone when applied in the modern novel. The study shows the presence of the "subconscious", the mythic layer, in modern western culture and how this has been dealt with in novelistic literature.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction: Myth in the Modern Novel?
• Part I: Assimilation and Amalgamation: Myth and Modernity
• Part II: Maintaining the Distinction:Myth or Modernity
• Literature
• Name Index