How to Do Things with Myths
A Performative Theory of Myths and How We Got There
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Equinox Publishing Ltd
Published:15th Apr '25
£24.95
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How to Do Things with Myths assembles a radically updated collection of the author's oft-cited publications on myth. Together, they tell how theories of myth have changed and led to a novel "performative" theory of myth. Beginning from its mid-19th-century foundations with philologist, Friedrich Max Muller, myths had been conceived in textual terms as quasi-biblical, static narratives. Not until the impact of ethnographic studies of traditional societies in the early 20th century did myths come to be regarded in situ as living agents shaping their societies. Leading a movement against Muller's static, textual view of myths were his French sociological critics, notably Emile Durkheim and his equipe. The Durkheimians felt that myths mattered because of what they "did" by functioning within human societies. Adopting the Durkheimian notion of function was Bronislaw Malinowski. But as a pragmatist and positivist, Malinowski narrowed his conception of myths to utilitarian terms. In place of Malinowski's utilitarianism, the author proposes a "performative theory" of myths - a theory freeing myths for a wider range of agency in culture, unrestricted by Malinowski's behaviorism and positivism. Conceived as "important stories," myths can thus "do things" in many, often subtle and unquantifiable, ways, depending upon a given culture's own value system. Conceptually and theoretically, a performative theory situates itself with respect to the efforts of some of the most popular contemporary myth theorists -- Bruce Lincoln, Mircea Eliade, Claude Levi-Strauss, Georges Dumezil, Robert A. Segal and Jonathan Z. Smith.
With this book, Ivan Strenski provides a compelling argument for a performative theory of myth. In building his account of what it is that myths do, Strenski brings together his wide-ranging knowledge of the history of the study of myth (debunking a few historiographical myths en passant), epistemological dexterity, and well-chosen case studies that coalesce into a vibrant call for a critical, reflexive, and pragmatic rethinking of one of the central, and indeed problematic, concepts in the study of religion. Strenski has outdone himself.
Nicolas Meylan, Maître d’enseignement et de recherche, Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions, Université de Lausanne
Myths are particularly fascinating objects, resisting as they do any simple, unambiguous definition. This explains why their study is so fascinating, and why they have given rise to so many opposing theories since the mid-nineteenth century. In fact, the study of these mythological theories alone sums up a large part of our intellectual history. The help of pilots is therefore indispensable in guiding us through this jungle of theories and concepts.
Ivan Strenski, with his immense culture and incomparable analytical mind, is undoubtedly one of them.
Daniel Dubuisson, Research Director emeritus, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
With insight, intelligence, and integrity, How to Do Things with Myths shows how myths do things. Reviewing a lifetime of assessing myth theories from Friedrich Schelling to Robert Segal, Strenski develops a performative theory of myth parallel to J. L. Austin’s performative theory of language. The myth of Caesar’s assassination, the Indian nationalist myth of Śivāji, Henri Hubert’s myth of Celtic-French identity, and the myth of Moscow as the third Rome, lead to the conclusion that myths are important stories that incite action. Hugely informative, this account challenges readers' existing understanding—and requires us to take responsibility.
Bryan S. Rennie, Vira I. Heinz Professor of Religion at Westminster College, Pennsylvania
ISBN: 9781800504776
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 263g
264 pages