Media, Myth, and Society

145 Pages·2012·1.522 MB·English

by  Arthur Asa Berger

Media, Myth, and Society
DOI: 10.1057/9781137301673
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DOI: 10.1057/9781137301673
Media, Myth, and Society
Arthur Asa Berger
DOI: 10.1057/9781137301673
media, myth, and society
Copyright © Arthur Asa Berger, 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–30168–0 EPUB
ISBN: 978–1–137–30167–3 PDF
ISBN: 978–1–137–30166–6 Hardback
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
First edition: 2013
www.palgrave.com/pivot
doi: 10.1057/9781137301673
In memory of Irving Louis Horowitz
DOI: 10.1057/9781137301673
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
Acknowledgments x
1 The Myth Model 1
2 The Structure of Myth 17
3 A Sociological Analysis of Myth 31
4 Psychoanalytic Approaches to Myth 47
5 The Semiotics of Myth 67
6 Hercules (aka Herakles) and
Hercule Poirot 90
7 Heroes Against Monsters:
Theseus and David 99
8 Odysseus/Ulysses and Athena 110
Coda 120
References 126
Index 129
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137301673
List of Figures
1.1 Sigmund Freud 10
2.1 Claude Lévi-Strauss 19
3.1 Emile Durkheim 33
4.1 Freud drawing 49
4.2 Nietzsche 65
5.1 Saussure 69
5.2 Peirce 71
5.3 Vladimir Propp 72
7.1 Theseus and the Minotaur 102
8.1 Odysseus is tied to the mast of
his ship to save him from the
Sirens 112
DOI: 10.1057/9781137301673 vii
List of Tables
1.1 Uses and gratifications and genres 7
1.2 Formulaic aspects of genres 8
1.3 Genre and myth 12
1.4 The myth model: Adam and Oedipus 15
2.1 Mythemes in the Oedipus Myth 22
2.2 Paradigmatic analysis of Dr. No 30
3.1 The myth model: The Last Supper 34
3.2 The myth model: Adam in
the Garden of Eden 39
3.3 The America/Europe contrast in
the American mind 40
4.1 The myth model: Prometheus 57
4.2 The myth model: Narcissus 59
4.3 The myth model: Dionysus 64
4.4 Dionysus and Apollo compared 66
5.1 Peirce’s typology 71
5.2 Propp’s narrative functions 74
5.3 The myth model: The Oedipus Myth 75
5.4 Proppian analysis of the Oedipus
Myth 76
5.5 Proppian functions in Star Wars 79
5.6 The myth model: The Myth of Sisyphus 81
6.1 The myth model: Hercules 93
6.2 Hercules and Hercule Poirot 96
7.1 The myth model: David and Goliath 106
viii DOI: 10.1057/9781137301673
List of Tables ix
8.1 The myth model: Odysseus/Ulysses 114
8.2 The myth model: Athena 117
8.3 The myth model: Medusa 119
C.1 Fairy tales and myths compared 123
DOI: 10.1057/9781137301673