Myth And Meaning, Myth And Order
Professor Ausband draws heavily on modern (especially American) literature, deals very specifically with American myths, and considers the consequences of the breakdown of a mythic system, thereby encouraging the reader to consider one’s own attitudes and models, whether or not one has been accustomed to thinking of them as essentially mythic.
This study of a mythic tradition is more than a study of the tales and songs of a people; and it is much more than a mere study of society. It is the study of ways of seeing the world, ways of organizing and finding meaning in all the disparate facts that have always surrounded every person in every civilization. We cannot understand any society very well until we understand something about its mythology. The same could be said about understanding an individual. If we could ask, “What does he believe in?” and “What does he value?” and “Who are his heroes?” and if we could receive his answers to those questions, then we would know the man himself and not just some facts about him. Myth and Meaning, Myth and Order is in part a study of the beliefs and attitudes that constitute an American mythic system, and so it is a study of the way Americans see themselves and the world around them.
Stephen C. Ausband is Associate Professor of English, and serves as coordinator of the Department of English and chairman of the Division of Humanities at Averett College, Danville, Virginia.