Myths of Europe / edited by Richard Littlejohns, Sara Soncini.

• Superior document: Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft ; 107
• TeilnehmendeR: Littlejohns, Richard, 1943-; Soncini, Sara.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Series: Internationale Forschungen zur allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft ; 107.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)
• Notes: "This volume is based on a colloquium entitled 'Miti d'Europa/Myths of Europe' held in Pisa in Sept. 2002"--P. [7].

Myths of Europe focuses on the identity of Europe, seeking to re-assess its cultural, literary and political traditions in the context of the 21st century. Over 20 authors – historians, political scientists, literary scholars, art and cultural historians – from five countries here enter into a debate. How far are the myths by which Europe has defined itself for centuries relevant to its role in global politics after 9/11? Can ‘Old Europe’ maintain its traditional identity now that the European Union includes countries previously supposed to be on its periphery? How has Europe handled relations with the non-European Other in the past and how is it reacting now to an influx of immigrants and asylum seekers? It becomes clear that founding myths such as Hamlet and St Nicholas have helped construct the European consciousness but also that these and other European myths have disturbing Eurocentric implications. Are these myths still viable today and, if so, to what extent and for what purpose? This volume sits on the interface between culture and politics and is important reading for all those interested in the transmission of myth and in both the past and the future of Europe.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Acknowledgments / Richard Littlejohns and Sara Soncini -- Introduction: Myths of Europe, and Myths of Europe / Richard Littlejohns and Sara Soncini -- Europa/Europe: Myths and Muddles / Manfred Pfister -- Electras and Hamlet / Guido Paduano -- Myths of Europe: Ted Hughes’s Tales from Ovid / Mark Rawlinson -- Myths of Masculinity: Adonis and Heracles / Pierangiolo Berrettoni -- St Nicholas, Icon of Mercantile Virtues: Transition and Continuity of a European Myth / Graham Jones -- Re-writing a Myth: Dryden’s Amphitryon and its Sources / Elena Rossi -- ‘A Foundling at the Crossroads’: Fielding, Tradition(s) and a ‘Dantesque’ Reading of Tom Jones / Roberta Ferrari -- Viewing the Moon: Between Myth and Astronomy in the Age of the Enlightenment / Antje Steinhoefel -- George Eliot’s Use of Scriptural Typology: Incarnation of Ideas / Alessandra Grego -- Myth and the Folklore of the Sea in Conrad / Mario Curreli -- Some Differentiations within the Concepts of ‘Myth’ / Darko Suvin -- Places of Myth in Ireland / Andrea Binelli -- Everlasting Peace and Medieval Europe: Romantic Myth-Making in Novalis’s Europa / Richard Littlejohns -- British Women versus Indian Women: the Victorian Myth of European Superiority / Nuria López -- Frontier Myths: Travel Writing on Europe’s Eastern Border / Andrew Hammond -- West is Best: Britain and European Immigration during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries / Tony Kushner -- Changing Perceptions of State Violence: Turkey’s ‘Westward’ Development through Anglo-Saxon Eyes / Donald Bloxham -- From Fascism to the Bomb: Marino Marini and the Undermining and Destruction of the Classical European Horseman / Nicholas Watkins -- New Order, New Borders: Post-Cold War Europe on the British Stage / Sara Soncini -- The Myth of the Etruscans in Travel Literature in English / Silvia Ross -- The Myth of the European Civil War / Tom Lawson -- Notes on Contributors.