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This challenging interdisciplinary collection of essays sets out to find cultural significance and value in America's post modern society. The book includes analyses of a wide range of contemporary cultural artifacts--poetry, novels, myths, painting, cinematic images--from different vantage points, but especially from the perspective of those working in the area of religion and culture. While the contributors recognize that there are no simple solutions for identifying satisfactory values in today's society, they all emphasize the close kinship between ethics and aesthetics in their interpretations. Imagery of many sorts comes up for a closer look: the imagery of the anti-abortion movement, heroic and mythic figures, rituals, politics, gender issues, and race relations. Giving voice to "difference" and "the other," the essays provide a lively discussion about where our common future is headed and how we can remain responsible to values that are beneficial to the largest number of people.

Contributors: William G. Doty, David H. Fisher, Matthew Fox, Stephen Karatheodoris, Gary Kochhar-Lindgren, Hank Lazer, Mark Ledbetter, Irena S. M. Makarushka, Daniel C. Noel, Jerome Rothenberg, Lynda Sexson

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CHOICE Review

This anthology includes the essays of a dozen academics who share a common belief in "the close kinship of ethics and aesthetics, and hence the interrelationships between cultural images and values." Topics are varied, from Mark Ledbetter's idiosyncratic reading of Toni Morrison's Beloved to Daniel Noel's Jungian analysis of Jung's notions about the mandala, and Mathew Fox's description of some contemporary enactments of the Stations of the Cross. Although there is the occasional interjection of pop phrases like "channel surfing" or icons like the Marlboro Man, the writing is consistently academic and well larded with appropriate jargon. There's an overarching pessimistic tone to the collection, a recognition of the increasing value of consumerism, the gradual mediocratizing of our culture by the forces of politics and the economy, and continuing pressures to de-intellectualize our discourse. Doty writes that "the aesthetic is the house of expression of the ethical," and we need only look to the messages of our popular art forms to become pessimistic as well. Although each essay is academically challenging, all lack a sense of perspective and a sorely needed sense of humor about "the human condition." Upper-division undergraduate; graduate; faculty; professional. K. Marantz; Ohio State University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

William G. Doty is a Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at The University of Alabama. He is the author of Myth: A Handbook and Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals, the editor of Mythosphere: A Journal for Image, Myth, and Symbol, and the co-editor of Mythical Trickster Figures: Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms.