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Title: The Politics of Myth: A Study of C.G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Campbell (Suny Series, Issues in the Study of Religion) by Robert S. Ellwood ISBN: 0-7914-4306-X Publisher: State University of New York Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Ian Myles Slater on: Three World-Views
Comment: Professor Ellwood very properly informs the reader that he was himself a student of Mircea Eliade at the University of Chicago, so I suppose that I should mention that I am an acquaintance of Professor Ellwood (although not a student, but a fellow Tolkien-fan). However, I am taking the time to review the book mainly because I enjoyed it tremendously, and learned a great deal from it. I would suggest it to anyone who has read a little of any, or all three, of the writers it presents, and is considering reading more. Doing so should reduce arguments about these sometimes-controversial figures, or at least put them on a better intellectual foundation.
"The Politics of Myth" analyzes the political and social thought -- or lack of thought -- of three influential writers of the middle and late twentieth century. It provides enough biographical detail to keep the reader grounded in reality, and just enough information on their theories of mythology to show how much, or how little, they are related to the cultural and political environments in which the three men worked. The story of their influence also receives some coverage, particularly in connection with the Bollingen Foundation's publications of Jung and Eliade, and Campbell's role as editor.
Eliade and Jung both have had large readerships for relatively difficult writers on often esoteric subjects, and simplified versions of their views are widely distributed, not always accurately, or with attribution. The large number of people who became familiar with Joseph Campbell through Public Television will here discover something of his place in the intellectual world.
The book is neither an indictment nor a defense of these writers on mythology (among other subjects). I finished my first reading with some definite impressions. Eliade, sometimes dismissed as a Romanian Fascist, comes off as a disturbingly unpolitical man in an age of totalitarianisms, never quite grasping that his early literary celebrity in his native country made him a valuable asset to any movement which, even falsely, claimed him as a supporter. Jung appears as a hearty Swiss peasant, deeply provincial despite his vast learning and (flashes of) genius, unable or unwilling to see beyond the symbolic exterior of the Nazi movement for a very long time. Campbell, fortunate to live in a more benign political environment, is seen rejoicing that he has freed himself of his Irish Catholic background, not noticing that his disdain for Judaism, distrust of England, and sympathy for Germany, might have something to do with his upbringing. A second reading reminded me that this short book is packed with telling details, and will probably suggest other interpretations to other readers
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful debunker of running myths.
Comment: A refreshing read that gives the details about the lives and times of these three brillian men. It helps to debunk all the soot that has accumulated upon their work from the burning fires of conservatives and the religious right. The attempts to tarnish their names with accusations of anti-semitism and other prejudices fall flat in front of the facts. This book shows that people must deal with the political waves of their own times, but it does not necessarily make them of the same dogmatic ilk.
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Title: Jung on Mythology by C. G. Jung, Robert A. Segal ISBN: 0691017360 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 27 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: The Mythological Unconscious by Michael Vannoy Adams ISBN: 1892746964 Publisher: Karnac Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Sacred and Profane: The Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade ISBN: 015679201X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1968 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Jung and the Jungians on Myth (Theorists of Myth) by Steven F. Walker ISBN: 0415936314 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Myth and Reality (Religious Traditions of the World) by Mircea Eliade ISBN: 1577660099 Publisher: Waveland Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.50 |
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