Theorizing about Myth (review)

Robert A. Segal's newest book, Theorizing about Myth, comes in a long series of excellent scholarship in myth studies. Currently, he is a professor of Religious Studies at Lancaster University where he specializes in theories of myth and gnosticism.

Receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1984, Dr. Segal published his groundbreaking Poimandres as Myth: Scholarly Theory and Gnostic Meaning in 1986 (Mouton de Gruyter). This application of Jungian analysis to a Greco-Roman text from Egypt establishes a trajectory of research that has helped form a historical narrative of myth studies up to the time of Joseph Campbell. Segal's best-known works on this topic are his collections and anthologies of works by notable past myth theorists such as Joseph Campbell: An Introduction (Garland Publishers, 1987), The Gnostic Jung (Princeton University Press, 1992), Literary Criticism and Myth (Garland Publishers, 1996), Psychology and Myth (Garland Publishers, 1996), Jung on Mythology (Princeton University Press, 1998), and The Myth and Ritual Theory (Blackwell Publishers, 1998). His most noteworthy collection for folklore studies may be the excellent 1996 anthology of historically important essays, Anthropology, Folklore, and Myth (Garland Publishers). This well-chosen anthology includes an excellent balance of significant works from the foundations of myth studies such as Bascom, Benedict, Tylor, Bidney, Boas, as well as Lang, Malinowksi, LevyBruhl, and others.

From this prodigious line of collections, selections, and anthologies, the arrival of a new original work by Segal should cause some excitement. Operating at a level of scholarship in myth studies few could match, Theorizing about Myth offers us a somewhat disjointed series of essays by Segal reprinted from academic journals largely from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although this book offers a convenient source for Segal's various essays, it does not offer any clear single statement of theory or fresh insights into myth.

Instead, Segal's Theorizing about Myth offers us what Segal does best: historical frameworks for the understanding of myth studies in the late 19th and 20th centuries: "While not foolproof, the way employed in this book is, one might say, 'argumentative': determining whom each theorist is arguing against" (p. 3).

He begins his anthology with the essay "Tylor's Theory of Myth as Primitive Society," in which Segal masterfully lays out the basic theory of E. B. Tylor, which functioned to define early myth studies. His second essay, "Does Myth Have a Future?" deals with post Tylorean theorists who sought to undo the radical myth/science split posited by Tylor. This chapter includes short discussions of Eliade, Bultmann, Jonas, and Jung. The third essay is an excellent description of the myth-ritual theorists as they developed out of the work of William Robertson Smith and with emphasis on the application of those theories by Sir James Frazer. The fourth essay discusses Jesse Weston's famous application of Frazer's myth-ritualism.

Chapter 5 diverges from myth studies strictly to comment on Bruno Bettelheim's Freudian interpretations of fairy tales and their significance in myth studies. Importantly, Segal includes his own commentary on Alan Dundes's criticisms of Bettelheim's work. Citing Dundes's harsh criticisms, Segal adds, "For me, even more disconcerting than Bettelheim's failure to consider his Freudian forebears in his analysis of fairy tales is his failure to consider his Freudian contemporaries in his more passing analysis of myths" (p. 60). That said, the reader wonders why Bettelheim's work deserves further commentary at all, especially in a volume on myth.

In chapter 6, Segal is back in his element discussing Jung's work on myth in this reprint of the introduction to his second collection of selections from Jung published as Jung on Mythology (1998). Summarizing, describing, and defining terms, Segal presents a synopsis of Jung's writings about myth of a quality only the highest caliber specialist could offer. This chapter even concludes with an excellent, though very brief, description of the post Jungians as represented by James Hillman.

The seventh chapter is the most analytical section of the book...