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Alan Dundes defines myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity came to be in their present form. This new volume brings together classics statements on the theory of myth by authors such as William Bascom, Jan de Vries, G. S. Kirk, James G. Frazer, Theodor H. Gaster, Mircea Eliade, Bronislaw Malinowski, C. G. Jung, and Claude Lévi-Strauss.
Rather than limiting this collection to classical Roman and Greek mythology, Dundes gives the book a worldwide scope. The twenty-two essays by leading experts on myth represent comparative functionalist, myth-ritual, Jungian, Freudian, and structuralist approaches to studying the genre.
Alan Dundes
Alan Dundes (1934-2005) was professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of California, Berkeley. Among many others, his books include Interpreting Folklore and From Game to War and Other Psychoanalytic Essays on Folklore. He is editor of Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel: Readings in the Interpretation of Afro-American Folklore and author of Bloody Mary in the Mirror: Essays in Psychoanalytic Folkloristics, both published by University Press of Mississippi.
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