Table of Contents
Preface to the Updated Edition: Context and History ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction: Myth and Metaphor 1
Chapter 1 Microscopes and Telescopes 6
Myths as Textual Lenses 6
Scholarly Lenses on Myths 9
Myths as Theological Lenses in Job and the Bhagavata Purana 11
Myths as Political Lenses 20
Myths as Human Lenses 26
Chapter 2 Dark Cats, Barking Dogs, Chariots, and Knives 29
The Difference of Dark Cats 29
The Dog That Doesn't Bark 36
The Same Old Story 45
The Context 46
The Whole and the Parts: Chariots and Knives 52
Chapter 3 Implied Spiders and the Politics of Individualism 58
Universalist Problems 58
Cross-Cultural Solutions 65
The Implied Spider 67
The Postcolonial and Postmodern Critique of Comparison 71
The Art and Science of Mythology 84
Chapter 4 Micromyths, Macromyths, and Multivocality 87
The Myth with No Point of View 87
Many Voices 94
Micromyths and Macromyths 99
The Myth with Points of View 107
Inverted Political Versions 113
Inverted Political Readings of Contemporary Mythic Texts 118
Chapter 5 Mother Goose and the Voices of Women 122
Old Wives' Tales 122
Women's Points of View 129
Men's Voices in Women's Texts 136
Women's Voices in Men's Texts 138
Androgynous Language 142
Salvaging Women's Voices 146
Chapter 6 Textual Pluralism and Academic Pluralism 154
The Archetype 154
Diffusion and Survival 156
The Foul Rag and Bones Shop of the Heart 163
Jumping off the Bricolage Bus 166
The Greening of Claude Lévi-Strauss 170
Seventy Different Interpretations 171
The Multiversity 173
Walking the Tightrope 175
Notes 179
Bibliography 201
Index 219
