The ways of creative mythologies: Imagined Worlds and their makers

University of Manchester, Department of English and American Studies
in Association with the Tolkien Society


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8 Chantry Lane,
WESTBURY,
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More information on how to order the proceedings.

One-day Conference
21 June 1997, Langdale Hall, University of Manchester

One of the essential tasks of mythology has been to explain the structure and meaning of the universe.   However different, mythologies usually reflect human perception of the cosmos, and the role of humanity in it. Today, unlike in the remote and "impersonal" past, the individual has become the creator of mythologies.   The understanding of myth itself varies amongst the scholarly and general public.   The keynote lecture of the Conference was given by:

Professor T. A. Shippey (St Louis University), the author of The Road to Middle-Earth
speaking on 'Grimm, Grundtvig and Tolkien: Nationalisms and the Invention of Mythologies'

Other papers included: 'Progressive Mythology and History Men', 'J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth: The Dialogic Component of Modern Myth-making', 'The Valar and Byzantium: Visions of Hierarchical Splendour in J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams', 'The Construction of Layers of Fantasy and Reality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', 'Blake's Arthur: Mankind's Hope or Satan's Representative ?', 'Myth, Metaphor and Metaphysics in Yeats', '"Rotten with Perfection": Myth, Modernism and Order', 'Myth and Modernism in Ireland after Joyce', 'Mythology as World Vision or World Version in J. C. Powys's Wolf Solent', 'Myth and Politics in George Oppen's "The Occurrences"', 'Mythology and the Operatic Stage', 'Painting the Wolves: The Role of Classical Myth in Contemporary Drama', 'Graphic Novels - Creators, Creations and Myth' and others.