Myth criticism flourished in the mid-twentieth century under the powerful influence of Canadian thinker Northrop Frye. It asserted the need to identify common, unifying patterns in literature, arts, and religion. Although it was eclipsed by postmodern theories that asserted difference and conflict, those theories proved incapable of inspiring solidarity or guiding social action. The Productions of Time argues for a return to myth criticism in order to refine and extend its vision. With the aim of rehabilitating myth criticism for our time, Michael Dolzani sketches an anatomy of the imagination as demonstrated in the total body of its productions, including literature, mythology, the arts, popular culture, and religious and political texts. Dolzani situates a vast panoply of images, character types, plot structures, themes, and genres to better understand their purposes, their recurrences across broad spans of history, and their interrelations. Illustrating the relationship between mythology and history, The Productions of Time proposes a symbolic language as a way of enabling dialogue across ideological and individual differences. Arguing for the ethical and intellectual necessity of conceiving a unifying pattern that transcends differences, The Productions of Time demonstrates that imagination is part of the human inheritance, common to all, not just to poets and mystics.
Author(s): Michael Dolzani
Publisher: McGill-Queen’s University Press
Year: 2021
Cover
THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Editions Cited
Overture: Concerning Mandala Symbolism: The Symbol with and without Meaning
Introduction: The State of Criticism at the Present Time
PART ONE FIRST THERE IS A MOUNTAIN: THE VERTICAL AXIS ASCENDING
I Revelation, or Imagination
II Emanation
III Creation
IV Scripture as Creation
V “Our Great Salvation from Above”: Traditional Mythology and the Point of Transcendence
PART TWO THERE IS A SEASON: THE CYCLE
I Paradise
II The Fall
III The Fallen World of Cyclical Time: Law and Sacrifice
IV Tragedy
V Comedy
VI The Form of Drama
PART THREE THE EYE BEGINS TO SEE: THE HORIZONTAL AXIS
I The Affirmation of the Cycle
II The Progressive Vision
III What the Hammer? The Forge of Language
IV The Ironic Cycle and the Clarification of Vision
V The Recreation of Evolution: Hunting Cultures
VI The Recreation of Evolution: Gathering and Planting Cultures
VII The Mythology of Urban Civilization and Empire
VIII The Progressive Vision of the Bible: The Trickster God
IX The Progressive Vision of the Bible: Letter and Spirit
X The Progressive Vision of the Bible: Typology
XI The Progressive Vision in Classical Mythology
XII The Middle Ages and Renaissance: Romantic and Spiritual Heroes
XIII Shakespearean Tragicomedy or Romance
XIV Summary and Prelude: The Historical Nexus of Romanticism
XV In the White Giant’s Thigh: Romantic and Anti-Romantic
XVI Prometheus Agonistes: German Idealism and Marxism
XVII Romantic Internalization
XVIII The Novel: The Realistic Horizontal
XIX The Historical Novel and Science Fiction
XX The Novel as Epic
XXI The Lyric as Epic
PART FOUR YOU WANT IT DARKER: THE VERTICAL AXIS DESCENDING
I Decreation and the Descent Quest
II Decreative Realism
III Creative Non-fiction: Surface and Depth
IV The Lyric: Surface and Depth
V The Decreation Myth of Language
VI The Otherworld: Traditional and Dark Romance
VII The Sublime
VIII The Urban Otherworld
IX The Demonic: The Principle of Negation
X The Pluralistic Afterlife
XI Nothing
XII Reversal
XIII Satire and Apocalypse
XIV Satire, Laughter, and the Redemption of Time
Notes
Index
