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"The Myth of Disaster Myths" published on by Oxford University Press.

"Compiling and critiquing modern theories and theorists of myth, this book offers an overview of theories around the origin and function of various mythologies and mythological figures, allowing wider theoretical claims to be made about the relationship between societies and their myths. This ambitious collection of essays uses the tools and viewpoints of a range of disciplines in order to advocate for theoretical generalizations about myth as a whole. The book is divided into five sections, covering topics such as, myth and psychoanalysis; hero myths; myth and science; myth and politics; and myth and the physical world. Chapters engage with Freud, Jung, Popper and other thinkers, demonstrating how myth still plays a vital role in our communities and individual identities. The synthesising of these theories allows the reader to see that myths tend to be the result of a need, either material or existential, rather than a spontaneous creation. This is a fascinating survey by a leading voice in the study of myth. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of myth and how it interacts with Sociology, Anthropology, Politics and Economics"--

Offering a concise and illuminating introduction to the most important areas of myth, this fully updated and revised second edition contains new chapters and student-friendly features. Essential reading for students of any level wanting an introduction to the area

Mythen und Metaphern des modernen Tanzes werden erörtert. Tanz, so die gemeinhin akzeptierte Haltung in der Tanzwissenschaft, ist etwas, das über die Sprache hinaus geht. Indem die Metapher und deren Gebrauch entwertet oder ignoriert wird, wird davon ausgegangen, dass die normale (Schrift-)Sprache in der Beschreibung des Tanzes zwangsläufig scheitern muss. Diese Haltung ermöglicht es, unkritisch Mythen zu schaffen. So wird dem modernen Tanz etwa ein revolutionäres Potenzial zugeschrieben. Die systematische Metaphernanalyse der veröffentlichten Texte Isadora Duncans, einer Pionierin des modernen Tanzes, zeigt, dass die Revolution nur eine von zwölf höchst unterschiedlichen Metaphoriken ist, in denen sie ihren Tanz beschreibt. Diese lassen sich sowohl der Moderne als auch ihren Gegenströmungen zuordnen. Die weithin akzeptierten Mythen der Revolution und Weiblichkeit, die nicht nur dem Tanz Duncans, sondern dem modernen Tanz überhaupt zugeschrieben werden, müssen hinterfragt werden. Weiterhin wird gezeigt, dass sich der moderne Tanz als (un-)sichtbare Religion des 20. Jahrhunderts verstehen lässt.

Le présent texte est extrait d'un ouvrage en voie d'achèvement destiné au « Columbus Centre » de l'université du Sussex, dans le cadre d'une enquête entreprise en 1965 par ce Centre sur les préconditions socio-psychologiques des grandes persécutions. Cette enquête se poursuit sous la direction scien-tifique du professeur Norman Cohn. Ses participants sont : le professeur Z. Barbu (Université du Sussex), le professeur M. Chance (Université de Bir-mingham), le docteur H. Dicks, F.R.C.P., M. E. Howe, MM. D. Kenrick et G. Puxon, le docteur Pearl King, le professeur M. Scheffler (Université de Berlin), le docteur A. Storr et Mme Joan Westcott (Université du Sussex) .

Stuart Scheingold's The Politics of Rights provided a path-breaking theoretical analysis of what he called the "myth of rights." Scheingold's key insight was that even though rights were a myth, rights ideologies nevertheless left a significant imprint on American politics. The book charted a research agenda that has now been followed by a wide range of sociolegal scholars. Looking across that diverse body scholarship, I find convergence on two points. First, scholars claim that law and legal ideology contribute to processes of legitimation and to political acquiescence. Second, and seemingly in tension with the first, most people do not appear to believe in idealized legal myths and express only qualified commitments to legal ideals. Most scholars have responded to this tension by downplaying evidence that people have doubts about legal ideals, often treating expressions of doubts as evidence of confusion. As a result, scholars still conclude that residual commitments to legal myths help to explain legitimation and acquiescence. Such moves produce accounts of legal myths that are insufficiently attentive to politics and power. Scholars would do better to return to Scheingold's more ambivalent perspective on the politics of rights in order to understand the political consequences of commitments to rights' ideologies. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]

Indisputably, the lives of all individuals, now and throughout history, have not been commensurate in every respect. No individual has the most of everything at all times - net worth, love, happiness, security, companionship, fame, food, land, grandchildren, or whatever else he or she values.1 Nevertheless, a utopian strain in intellectual thought, emanating as the Enlightenment afterglow,2 continues to place its faith in the public construction of an ersatz equality that has never existed naturally.3 The Myth of Ownership, a recent book by two New York University law/philosophy professors, Liam Murphy and Thomas Nagel, is a striking exemplar of this dogged faith in the government's ability to eradicate inequality . As Murphy and Nagel powerfully demonstrate, many of the dominant concerns of taxation, such as vertical and horizontal equity and the debate over income versus consumption tax, diminish in importance or even vanish when the focus turns to first principles. The proposed policy solutions, which are the result of so much intellectual effort and discourse, are in a sense beside the point. Thus, a high level of awareness that tax policy cannot and does not advance in a vacuum would serve tax scholars well. To the extent that The Myth of Ownership stimulates discussion of the underlying values taxation serves, it will prove a positive contribution, notwithstanding the authors' unfortunate failure to make the case for their own first principles.

pt. 1. Translation and myth : across languages, media, and cultures -- pt. 2. William Blake's myth -- pt. 3. Myth in early United States literature -- pt. 4. Myth in modern and contemporary poetry -- pt. 5. Myth in new political and cultural environments.

1. Hans Blumenberg : an introduction -- 2. Myth and the human sciences during the Sattelzeit -- 3. German philosophy and the 'will to science' -- 4. Davos and after, or the function of anthropology -- 5. Promethean anthropologies -- 6. Goethe's 'Prometheus,' or on cultural selection -- 7. 'After the work on myth' : the political reception of Work on myth -- 8. Conclusion : political myth in the Blumenberg Nachlass.