American Mythologies

American Mythologies
Title American Mythologies PDF eBook
Author William Blazek
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Pages 324
Release 2005-01-01
Genre Literary Criticism
ISBN 9780853237464

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This challenging new book looks at the current reinvention of American Studies: a reinvention that, among other things, has put the whole issue of just what is 'American' and what is 'American Studies' into contention. The collection focuses, in particular, on American mythology. The editors themselves have written essays that examine the connections between mythologies of the United States and those of either classical European or Native American traditions. William Blazek considers Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine novels as chronicles combining Ojibwa mythology and contemporary U.S. culture in ways that reinvest a sense of mythic identity within a multicultural, postmodern America. Michael K Glenday's analysis of Jayne Anne Phillips' work and explores in it the contexts where myth and dream interact with each other. Betty Louise Bell is one of four essayists in this collection who focus their criticism on authors of Native American heritage. In the first part of 'Indians with Voices', Bell carefully argues that Roy Harvey Pearce's seminal Native American studies text Savagism and Civilization fails to acknowledge its white elitist assumptions about what constitutes The American Mind and views Native Americans along a primitive-savage binary that helped to create a twentieth-century 'national mythos of innocence and destiny'. Other essays include Christopher Brookeman's study of the impact of Muhammad Ali on Norman Mailer's non-fiction writing about heavyweight boxing.

American Mythologies

American Mythologies
Title American Mythologies PDF eBook
Author Marshall Blonsky
Publisher Oxford University Press, USA
Pages 556
Release 1992
Genre Literary Criticism
ISBN

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A narrative account of the dreammakers of international culture as they construct the attitudes and lifestyles of the early 90s ; includes sketches of Giorgio Armani in Milan, Vanna White, Ted Koppel, Costa-Gavras, Stephen King, Peter Greenaway, Yergeny Yertushenfo, Donald Trump, and Merv Griffin.

American Mythologies

American Mythologies
Title American Mythologies PDF eBook
Author Manuel Peña
Publisher Routledge
Pages 301
Release 2016-04-15
Genre History
ISBN 1317182286

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American Mythologies examines eleven myths that form part of the storehouse of present-day American mythologies, elucidating the nature of contemporary myths by investigating their ideological sub-terrain. Grounded in a semiological approach, which explores the displacement of information and the transformation of signs that characterise mythic communication, this book sheds light on the socio-economic, gendered, national and racial interests that lie behind myth-making. Presenting rich case studies from popular culture and public discourse, it demonstrates the manner in which these myths, and American mythology in general, promote the core values of everyday life under capitalism: rugged individualism, the unfettered right to accumulate wealth, the superior moral character of free-enterprise democracy, and its abundant opportunities for every citizen. By the same token, that same mythology negates the corruption endemic to the capitalist social order, an order that also promotes inescapable class, racial, and gender inequalities which confine the majority of Americans to a life of constant economic struggle. A fresh critique of the foundations of American culture, American Mythologies will appeal to those with interests in sociology, social and cultural theory, and cultural and media studies.

American Mythologies

American Mythologies
Title American Mythologies PDF eBook
Author Manuel Peña
Publisher Routledge
Pages 183
Release 2016-04-15
Genre History
ISBN 1317182294

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American Mythologies examines eleven myths that form part of the storehouse of present-day American mythologies, elucidating the nature of contemporary myths by investigating their ideological sub-terrain. Grounded in a semiological approach, which explores the displacement of information and the transformation of signs that characterise mythic communication, this book sheds light on the socio-economic, gendered, national and racial interests that lie behind myth-making. Presenting rich case studies from popular culture and public discourse, it demonstrates the manner in which these myths, and American mythology in general, promote the core values of everyday life under capitalism: rugged individualism, the unfettered right to accumulate wealth, the superior moral character of free-enterprise democracy, and its abundant opportunities for every citizen. By the same token, that same mythology negates the corruption endemic to the capitalist social order, an order that also promotes inescapable class, racial, and gender inequalities which confine the majority of Americans to a life of constant economic struggle. A fresh critique of the foundations of American culture, American Mythologies will appeal to those with interests in sociology, social and cultural theory, and cultural and media studies.

The Myths That Made America

The Myths That Made America
Title The Myths That Made America PDF eBook
Author Heike Paul
Publisher transcript Verlag
Pages 451
Release 2014-08-31
Genre Social Science
ISBN 3839414857

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This essential introduction to American studies examines the core foundational myths upon which the nation is based and which still determine discussions of US-American identities today. These myths include the myth of »discovery,« the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the Founding Fathers, the melting pot myth, the myth of the West, and the myth of the self-made man. The chapters provide extended analyses of each of these myths, using examples from popular culture, literature, memorial culture, school books, and every-day life. Including visual material as well as study questions, this book will be of interest to any student of American studies and will foster an understanding of the United States of America as an imagined community by analyzing the foundational role of myths in the process of nation building.

Myths America Lives By

Myths America Lives By
Title Myths America Lives By PDF eBook
Author Richard T. Hughes
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Pages 374
Release 2018-09-05
Genre Social Science
ISBN 0252050800

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Six myths lie at the heart of the American experience. Taken as aspirational, four of those myths remind us of our noblest ideals, challenging us to realize our nation's promise while galvanizing the sense of hope and unity we need to reach our goals. Misused, these myths allow for illusions of innocence that fly in the face of white supremacy, the primal American myth that stands at the heart of all the others.

American, African, and Old European Mythologies

American, African, and Old European Mythologies
Title American, African, and Old European Mythologies PDF eBook
Author Yves Bonnefoy
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Pages 296
Release 1993-05-15
Genre Reference
ISBN 0226064573

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Here are 80 articles on mythologies from around the world, including Native Americans, African, Celtic, Norse, and Slavic, and about such topics as fire, the cosmos, and creation. Also includes an overview of the Indo-Europeans and an essay on the religions and myths of Armenia. Illustrations.