This book presents a collection of essays discussing a history of the five myths of Dionysus, Narcissus, Prometheus, Marcolf, and Labyrinth in twentieth-century literature. The author traces their transformations against the wider backdrop of Polish and European literature. The book is an excellent, thought-provoking lesson in understanding the signs of contemporary culture and a fascinating jo…
The fictional storyteller’s account of the spontaneous generation of authentic myths naturally suitable for children is set alongside the real author’s account of a process of deliberate revision, formulated through rhetorical questions and characterized through metaphors. The myths have to be “purified” through the suppression – which Bright describes …
s this story of the Golden Age develops – with Eustace’s charming descrip-tions of meals growing on trees, carefree fun, and the bright aura – it in fact reveals the sinister myth of Pandora, here a “playfellow” sent by the gods to the boy Epimetheus, in whose household “a great box” menacingly awaits. Even though in Hawthorne’s version the girl is not responsible for…