Myth: A Very Short Introduction (review)

Robert A. Segal states his intention up front: "This book is an introduction not to myths but to approaches to myth . . . and it is limited to modern theories" (p. 1). Since one might imagine a number of different ways to introduce myth, his candor is appropriate. By limiting his "very short introduction" in this way, Segal is able to maintain cohesion and clarity in describing a large and diverse subject. He delineates the various theoretical approaches to understanding myths by associating them with their proponents. Myth: A Very Short Introduction is a book about academics, not about stories or storytellers.

Segal's method of presentation is fairly straightforward. Though he downplays the often heated debates that have arisen over what the term "myth" means, Segal does define myth as a narrative (p. 4) "about something significant" whose "main figures [are] personalities" (p. 5) and which "accomplishes something significant for its adherents" (p. 6), who hold to it tenaciously. After addressing the perennial problem of definition, Segal is able to devote the rest of the book to the theorists. In sections averaging two pages, he describes the works of prominent mythologists, briefly demonstrating how each writer's ideas apply to a particular myth and describing how these ideas relate to those of other mythologists.

In focusing on academic history, Segal remains largely objective in his descriptions and saves evaluation for those places where he demonstrates the applications of the theories to the myths. Though pointing out that he will use the myth of Adonis throughout to illuminate the theorists' approaches, Segal does not hesitate to discuss some other myths, especially when the scholars under his scrutiny have applied their ideas to biblical stories. Segal's main method, however, is comparison. He describes the writers and their theories to highlight their interrelationships. He constantly refers back to scholars he has already described and foreshadows those yet to come. Edward Tylor looms large, being mentioned in every chapter. James Frazer and Carl Jung also are frequently mentioned.

Segal organizes his chapters by relationships. Myth, he tells us, is never studied as myth; rather, "theories of myth are theories of some much larger domain, with myth as a mere subset" (p. 2). What unites the study of myth, he points out, are the common questions asked by scholars again and again. What is the subject matter of myth? What is its origin? What is its function? He organizes his chapters not according to these questions but according to the larger domain under which myth is studied: science, philosophy, religion, ritual, literature, psychology, structure, and society. Strangely, Segal has all but omitted the study of myth as it has sprung from the study of language. Segal's concluding chapter, "The Future of the Study of Myth," might well be retitled "Myth and Make-believe" as it follows the set-up of the previous chapters and advances his own idea for how to evaluate myth as it exists in the present. For Segal, the way to do this is to apply to myth the theory of "play" advanced by D. W. Winnicott (p. 138).

Segal's book, intended for an audience unfamiliar with the academic history of myth, might best be approached by folklorists as a statement about the current state of mythological studies. If the book is seen as such, what would a reader learn? First, if this study is taken as comprehensive, one would be led to believe that myth has been studied almost exclusively by European and American men. Two women, Jane Harrison and Jessie Weston, rate inclusion, but no one who hails from outside Europe or North America can be found. Second, according to Segal, the relevant theories of myth seem to be formed in reaction to each other. Perhaps this is a product of Segal's writing style, which relies on the comparison of one theorist to another. In focusing on theorists and not on stories, Segal gives an accurate picture of the study of myth...