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Goddess Lost
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 273

Goddess Lost

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2023-01-20
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  • Publisher: McFarland

Drawing upon historical, archaeological, and mythical examples from around the world, this book reveals how societal views of female empowerment and authority can be directly traced to the reverence once directed towards female warriors, priestesses, healers, queens, pharaohs, and goddesses. Communities which revered women as sacred idols of their belief systems were far more likely to place women in prominent positions of social or political influence, since their members were quite used to envisioning power in the hands of a strong or divine woman. The book also explores how goddesses were purposefully devalued during the rise of patriarchal civilizations, thus restricting the social impor...

The Legacy of the Goddess
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 238

The Legacy of the Goddess

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2023-04-10
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  • Publisher: McFarland

It is often assumed that the female characters found in popular folk and fairy tales are little more than inconsequential stereotypes--mostly serving as hapless victims in need of rescue, boring one-dimensional princesses, or egotistical and conniving villains. This book presents more fully-realized portraits of these female characters and the ways in which they actually represent bold and powerful connections to the goddesses of classic mythic narratives. The rich legacy of female goddesses, shamans, queens, and priestesses is in fact preserved and celebrated through these more modern representations, whether as brides who can transform into animals, wise old women who live alone in the deep wilderness, strong warrior maidens, or witches who can conquer and command the elements of nature. In contemplating this revised analysis of female characters within global folktales and fairy tales, readers can see that the goddesses of old have never truly been forgotten.

The Hero's Quest and the Cycles of Nature
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 232

The Hero's Quest and the Cycles of Nature

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2016-10-11
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  • Publisher: McFarland

This examination of the heroic journey in world mythology casts the protagonist as a personification of nature--a "botanical hero" one might say--who begins the quest in a metaphorical seed-like state, then sprouts into a period of verdant strength. But the hero must face a mythic underworld where he or she contends with mortality and sacrifice--embracing death as a part of life. For centuries, humans have sought superiority over nature, yet the botanical hero finds nothing is lost by recognizing that one is merely a part of nature. Instead, a cyclical promise of continuous life is realized, in which no element fully disappears, and the hero's message is not to dwell on death.

The Lessons of Nature in Mythology
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 225

The Lessons of Nature in Mythology

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2015-10-29
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  • Publisher: McFarland

This examination of myths from around the world focuses on the role nature plays within mythology. Creation myths from myriad cultures recognized that life arose from natural elements, inextricably connecting human life to the natural world. Nature as portrayed in myth is unpredictable and destructive but also redemptive, providing solace and wisdom. Mythology relates the human life cycle to the seasons, with spring, summer, fall and winter as metaphors for birth, adulthood, old age and death. The author identifies divinities who were direct representations of natural phenomena. The transition of mythic representations from the Paleolithic to Neolithic period is discussed.

Humanistic Critique of Education
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 243

Humanistic Critique of Education

Humanistic Critique of Education’s ten essays by noted scholars address the subject of educational policy, methods, ideology and more, with stress upon the rhetoric of contemporary teaching and learning. Humanistic Critique of Education focuses on education as symbolic action, as the foundation of discovery and, thus, as “equipment for living” in Kenneth Burke’s terms. These essays will spark dialogue about improving education in democratic societies through the lens of humanism.

War and Literature
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 145

War and Literature

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2020-01-24
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  • Publisher: MDPI

This Special Issue focuses specifically on the topic of commiseration with the “enemy” within war literature. The articles included in this Special Issue show authors and/or literary characters attempting to understand the motives, beliefs, and cultural values of those who have been defined by their nations as their enemies. This process of attempting to understand the orientation of defined “enemies” often shows that the soldier has begun a process of reflection about why he or she is part of the war experience. The texts included in this issue also show how political authorities often resort to propaganda and myth-making tactics that are meant to convince soldiers that they are fighting opponents who are evil, sub-human, etc., and are therefore their direct enemies. Literary texts that show an author and/or literary character trying to reflect against state-supported definitions of good/evil, right/wrong, and ally/enemy often present an opportunity to reevaluate the purposes of war and one’s moral responsibility during wartime.

Weaving Words into Worlds
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 312

Weaving Words into Worlds

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2023-10-10
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  • Publisher: Vernon Press

'Weaving Words into Worlds' comes as the third spinoff of the international ecopoetics conference organized in Perpignan in 2016. Reflecting upon how the many stories we tell directly influence the world we live in, each of the contributions in this international volume directs our attention to the constant, ecopoetic weaving of word to the world at work via the many entanglements between mind, matter, and meaning, whether on a local or a global scale. It encapsulates how the words, stories, and concepts we humans articulate as we try to make sense of the world we inhabit give part of its shape to the web of ecological relations that we depend on for survival. It seeks to cast light on the d...

Retrospective Poe
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 345

Retrospective Poe

This book analyzes a range of Edgar Allan Poe’s writing, focusing on new readings that engage with classical and (post)modern studies of his work and the troubling literary relationship that he had with T.S. Eliot. Whilst the book examines Poe’s influence in Spain, and how his figure has been marketed to young and adult Spanish reading audiences, it also explores the profound impact that Poe had on other audiences, such as in America, Greece, and Japan, from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The essays attest to Poe’s well-deserved reputation, his worldwide legacy, and his continued presence in global literature. This book will appeal particularly to university teachers, Poe scholars, graduate students, and general readers interested in Poe’s oeuvre.

Psychology in Edgar Allan Poe
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 167

Psychology in Edgar Allan Poe

This collection offers six critical essays on the topic of psychology in Edgar Allan Poe. It came together as a response to a visible absence of this subject in recent scholarship. The volume presents Edgar Allan Poe as one of the pioneers in psychology, who often anticipated major theoretical trends and ideas in psychology in his incessant explorations of the relationship between behavior and the psyche. Scrutinizing serial killer narratives, obsessive narratives through Jungian unconscious, Lacanian Das Ding, doppelgängers, intersubjectivity, and the interrelationship between the material world and imaginative faculties, the essays reveal the richness and the complexity of Poe's work and its pertinence to contemporary culture. With contributions by Gerardo Del Guercio, Phillip Grayson, Sean J. Kelly, Rachel McCoppin, Tatiana Prorokova, and Karen J. Renner.

Women Versed in Myth
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 248

Women Versed in Myth

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2016-09-09
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  • Publisher: McFarland

Throughout history, men have prayed to gods and poets have interpreted ancient myths for new audiences. But what about women? With sections on teaching and modern writing, this collection of new essays examines how modern female poets--including H.D., Louise Gluck, Ruth Fainlight, Rita Dove, Sylvia Plath and others--have subverted classical expectations in interpreting such legends as Persephone, Helen and Eurydice. Other mythological figures are also explored and rewritten, including Buddhism's Kwan Yin, Celtic Macha, the Aztecs' Coatlicue, Pele of Hawaii, India's Sita, Sumer's Inanna, Yemonja of the Yoruba and many more.