Mythopoesis: Mythic Patterns in the Literary Classics

An ambitious study if myth patterns in literature from the Book of Job to the existentialists. Dr. Slochower provides a systematic reexamination of our major literary classics that combines anthropological, psychoanalytic, and literary critical perspectives. His major thrust implies a denial of the ever increasing specialization of humanistic studies that treats the great classics of our literary tradition as either literature or psychology or sociology or religion or philosophy. His analysis considers Freudian motifs as determining factors in the modern intellectual drama. But its over-all perspective is the view of Mythopoesis as the center in which the various cultural forms meet and form an organic fusion. Dr. Slochower’s multi-faceted perspectives lead him to a re-view of the entire scope of Western consciousness. He connects the contemporary revival of myth with man’s enormous creative potential which points to the possibility of a unified world.