The comparison made between Prometheus and Faust occurs so frequently in modern scholarship as to seem commonplace. However, while each figure has been investigated separately, no recent full-length study has brought the two characters together and examined the association. The present volume explores the Prometheus myth from its preliterary origins through treatments in Greek by Hesiod, Aeschylus, Plato, and Lucian, as well as in Latin literature and Roman theatricals. The investigation continues into hitherto unexplored connections with the Greek figure and the magus and occult scientist types of late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Renaissance. The Prometheus and Faust traditions met in literature and art soon after the emergence of the historical Faustus. The traditions continued to exist independently through the 16th and 17th centuries, until Goethe began to write a play about each character. Ultimately Goethe abandoned Prometheus; however, Faust absorbed much of the Promethean persona.

Folklore has long explored food as a core component of life, linked to identity, aesthetics, and community and connecting individuals to larger contexts of history, culture and power. It recognizes that we gather together to eat, define class, gender, and race by food production, preparation, and consumption, celebrate holidays and religious beliefs with food, attach meaning to the most mundane of foods, and evoke memories and emotions through our food selections and presentations. "The Food and Folklore Reader "is the first comprehensive introduction to folklore methods and concepts relevant to food, spanning the entire discipline with key sources drawn from around the globe. Whilst folklore approaches have long permeated food studies, this is the first dedicated reader to introduce those ideas and to encourage students of food to explore them in their own work.Internationally respected editor Lucy M. Long offers expert commentary and rich learning features to aid teaching. Definitive in scale and scope, the reader covers the history of food in folklore scholarship whilst also highlighting food studies approaches and concepts for folklore readers.From seminal works on identity and aesthetics to innovative scholarship on contemporary food issues such as culinary tourism and food security, this will be an essential resource for food studies, folklore studies and anthropology.

The amphibious cult classic: a magical tale of a suburban housewife's affair with a frogman ... 'Disturbing but seductive ... Wonderful.' Margaret Atwood 'Perfect.' Max Porter 'Still outpaces, out-weirds, and out-romances anything today.' Marlon James 'A feminist masterpiece: tender, erotic, singular.' Carmen Maria Machado ''Genius ... A broadcast from a stranger and more dazzling dimension.' Patricia Lockwood 'Kind of weird and cool. ' Irvine Welsh 'Genius ... Like Revolutionary Road written by Franz Kafka ... Exquisite.' The Times 'Incredibly liberates readers from the awfulness of convention to a state where weirdness and otherness are beautiful.' Sarah Hall 'A devastating fable of mythic proportions ... Wondrously peculiar.' Irenosen Okojie (foreword) Dorothy is a grieving housewife in the Californian suburbs; her husband is unfaithful, but they are too unhappy to get a divorce. One day, she is doing chores when she hears strange voices on the radio announcing that a green-skinned sea monster has escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research - but little does she expect him to arrive in her kitchen. Muscular, vegetarian, sexually magnetic, Larry the frogman is a revelation - and their passionate affair takes them on a journey beyond their wildest dreams ... Rachel Ingalls's Mrs Caliban is a bittersweet fable, a subversive fairy tale, as magical today as it was four decades ago 'A miracle . A perfect novel.' New Yorker 'Every one of its 125 pages is perfect ... Clear a Saturday, please, and read it in a single sitting.' Harper's What Readers Are Saying: 'Maybe the most gorgeous, lyrical book ever written'***** 'A fantastic wee novel, strange and brilliant, and absolutely the inspiration for The Shape of Water.'***** 'Wonderful, sharp minimal prose offers big truths. Superb - brilliant, in fact.'***** 'Absolutely incredible. It's weird, funny, and heartbreaking, like a Richard Yates novel except with lizardman sex.'***** 'One of the best tongue-in-cheek social satires that I've ever read. It delves into gender politics. It takes a long, hard look at mental health. It addresses female sexual freedom and agency. It asks the reader to examine what it means to be human ... Genius.'***** 'Really brilliant: a deconstruction of suburbia by way of monster movies that examines sad realities with hilarious verve ... Sometimes you need a sexy frog person to break you out of the ties that bind. '***** 'Hooked me so deeply I picked it up and finished it the same night ... Beautiful ... Will stay with me.'***** 'What the hell just happened?'*****

Winner of the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year 'a beguiling mixture of poetry, moving prose and magical realism' - Stephen McGinty, The Sunday Times Jeda is a girl on the cusp of adulthood, living in Edinburgh; with a white father and a black mother, she feels self-conscious and out of place. Her feelings of alienation allow the stories of the shapeshifting Shadowman, who embodies all that is negative, to feed on her doubts and insecurities. The death of her mother, Rahami, gives the Shadowman an opportunity to control Jeda through her grief and his lies, but her mother's last gift to her daughter was a box of stories. When the box is flung open, the stories escape, setting in motion an incredible journey. Jeda learns more about her African ancestry through tales of slavery, cruelty and colonisation, but she also discovers pride and love and sacrifice, ultimately embracing her dual heritage and her unique place in the world. Filled with tragedy, wonder and magic, Blood and Gold explores the themes of loss and oppression, while asking us to examine our own identities, attitudes, and humanity.

Despite protestations to the contrary, myth criticism in literature is not dead: witness the well over 1000 illuminating sources published between 1970 and 1990 selected from thousands more and provided with succinct informative annotations. The modern study of the relation between myths and literature began in the late 19th century with publication of James G. Frazer's The Golden Bough and reached a high water mark with Northrop Frye's archetypal criticism beginning in the late 1950s. The "end of modernism" proclaimed in the late 1960s seemed also to toll the death knell for myth criticism, which was denigrated by some "new critics" of the "post-modernist" era. Instead, however, the authors here have found a wealth of recent materials, some proceeding from traditional psychological or anthropological stances and others taking new directions: studying relationships between myth and language and myth and history, viewing myth as part of the complex fabric of fiction rather than its core, and accommodating feminist theory, among other approaches. The variety of narratives accorded the status of myth has also prompted inquiries on mythopoesis, or the literary creation of myth. The opening chapter surveys work done on the mythic or archetypal approach in general and on such mythic figures in literature as Orpheus, Oedipus, Cain, and Faust; the second chapter covers works on myth in classical literature; and the following five chapters correspond to major periods in British and American literature. Included are general studies and studies of particular authors, notably among them such giants of the past as Shakespeare, Milton, Melville, Joyce, and Faulkner, but also including suchcontemporary writers as Toni Morrison and John Updike. A well-constructed subject index provides access throughout to mythical figures and literary figures as well as major theories and theorists, topics, and themes; and an author index accesses the critical studies.

Myths of the Nation focuses on the construction of forms of historical consciousness in narratives, or schools of narrative. The study seeks to underscore what goes behind the writing of `true' and `authentic' histories by treating historical fiction as the literary dimension of nationalist ideology. It traces nationalism from its abstract underpinnings to its concrete manifestation in historical fiction which underwrites the Indian freedom struggle. The construction of identity through mythicized conceptions of India is examined in detail through Raja Rao's first novel, Kanthapura. The key concept governing the subject is that of representation. Since the `fictional reality' of the nation is a much debated issue, the study examines how history slides into fiction. The author shows how orientalist, nationalist, Marxist, subalternists, and poststructuralists, have all, in their own celebratory ways, used the disenfranchised sub-proletariat in their works. What she finds useful in poststructuralist practices, however, is that subaltern identities are imbued with heterogeneity, thus splitting open an authoritarian and reactionary nationalism, and a continuing neo-colonialism.

This book presents tales of mythical beasts, offering primary sources (e.g., the writings of Herodotus, original fairy tales, poems) within the context of background material and commentary. Discussion questions and activities complete each chapter.

Focusing on the phoenix, the griffin, the unicorn, and the dragon, this book combines tales and lore of each, presenting primary sources (e.g., the writings of Herodotus and original fairy tales and poems) within the context of background material and commentary. The shifting images of these animals offer a unique perspective on myths, religions, art, literature, and science in history. Discussion questions and learning activities at the end of the chapters guide students in exploring the worlds surrounding each beast. Sure to appeal to all ages, this fascinating collection makes a wonderful supplement to world history courses and is a great resource for reports.

"Peasants tell tales," one prominent cultural historian tells us (Robert Darnton). Scholars must then determine and analyze what it is they are saying and whether or not to incorporate such tellings into their histories and ethnographies. Challenging the dominant culturalist approach associated with Clifford Geertz and Marshall Sahlins among others, this book presents a critical rethinking of the philosophical anthropologies found in specific histories and ethnographies and thereby bridges the current gap between approaches to studies of peasant society and popular culture. In challenging the methodology and theoretical frameworks currently used by social scientists interested in aspects of popular culture, the author suggests a common discursive ground can be found in an historical anthropology that recognizes how myths, fairytales and histories speak to a universal need for imagining oneself in different timescapes and for linking one's local world with a "known" larger world.

In the lost mountains of Haiti, strange beings with powerful magic powers, periodically go down to the town to capture the most bright people in order to transmit them secrets of ancient African mages for the concretization of a sublime mission.

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aPersuasively argued...A fascinating study that makes a real contribution to discussions of health, wellness and faith in America.a
--"Publishers Weekly"

"An exploration of the history and practices of black healers and healing illuminating the vital cultural, intellectual, and spiritual expression of a people. This fine multidisciplinary work draws deeply and thoughtfully from the experiences and words of its subjects, offering alternative visions of human creativity, resistance, and community."
--Yvonne Chireau, author of "Black Magic: Religion and the African-American Conjuring Tradition"

Cure a nosebleed by holding a silver quarter on the back of the neck. Treat an earache with sweet oil drops. Wear plant roots to keep from catching colds. Within many African American families, these kinds of practices continue today, woven into the fabric of black culture, often communicated through women. Such folk practices shape the concepts about healing that are diffused throughout African American communities and are expressed in myriad ways, from faith healing to making a mojo.

Stephanie Y. Mitchem presents a fascinating study of African American healing. She sheds light on a variety of folk practices and traces their development from the time of slavery through the Great Migrations. She explores how they have continued into the present and their relationship with alternative medicines. Through conversations with black Americans, she demonstrates how herbs, charms, and rituals continue folk healing performances. Mitchem shows that these practices are not simply about healing; they are linked to expressions of faith, delineating aspects of a holistic epistemology and pointing to disjunctures between African American views of wellness and illness and those of the culture of institutional medicine.

Werewolf Histories is the first academic book in English to address European werewolf history and folklore from antiquity to the twentieth century. It covers the most important werewolf territories, ranging from Scandinavia to Germany, France and Italy, and from Croatia to Estonia.

This handsome hardback journal features ten new mini stories about everyone's favourite fox, reimagined by 'Reynard the Fox' author Anne Louise Avery. Told by Reynard to his three little cubs on a moonlit spring night in the east of Flanders, each of the two-page stories is based on old medieval French vulpine tales, drawn from Marie de France's version of Aesop, 'Ysopet', Guillaume Tardif's 'Les Apologues et Fables de Laurens Valle' and 'Le Roman de Renart'. Some tell of Reynard's antics, others of the exploits of his noble and mythic ancestors. Foxes tumble into dyer's vats, steal twists of eels from unsuspecting fisherman, lounge around Black Sea ports and are transformed into eternal and glittering stars. With a stylish ribbon marker, foiled spine and high-quality ruled pages, this notebook is a stationery-lover's delight as well as the perfect gift for fans of Avery's captivating story-telling and all those entranced by this enduring animal fable.

The supernatural lore of Ancient Greece and Rome is vividly brought to life in these pages.The literature of Classical antiquity bristles with horrible witches, mysterious wizards, terrifying ghosts, magic books, curses, voodoo-dolls, even werewolves, vampires and Frankenstein's monsters. Many of these tales have directly shaped our own culture's lore of magic and ghosts, and consequently, these tales speak to us today with great immediacy.This book covers a period of over a thousand years that witnessed some massive historical and cultural changes, including the advent of Christianity. Ancient culture was generally conservative and this is particularly true of its notions of ghosts and witches, which are strongly bound up with traditional tales and folklore of various kinds. Such tales preserve and conserve ideas about ghosts and witchcraft, and they survive to achieve this effect precisely because they are wonderfully engaging.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable and enthusiastic increase of interest in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan. The legends of these temples and shrines are recorded in many historical manuscripts and these genealogies have such great significance that some of them have been registered as national treasures of Japan. They are indispensable to elucidate the history of these temples and shrines, in addition to the formation process of the ancient Japanese nation. This book provides a comprehensive examination of the genealogies and legends of ancient Japanese clans. It advances the study of ancient Japanese history by utilizing new analytical perspective from not only the well-known historical manuscripts relied upon by previous researchers, but also valuable genealogies and legends that previous researchers largely neglected.