First Published in 1998. Volume 12 in the Library of Anthropology series. This text traces the influence of Jane Ellen Harrison, a brilliant classicist and one of the 'Cambridge Anthropologists' on Jams Joyce, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf. Decade of critical over-emphasis on Sir James Frazer's influence on modernism have obscured the more important contributions of Harrison, who explored the chthonic Greek matriarchal cults prior to patriarchal Olympianism and originated the 'ritual theory', finding the origins of Greek drama- and ultimately of all art, in religious ritual. Harrison's images of matriarchal divinity and the feminist principles they embodied inspired these modernist writers to envision the young artist reborn as creator through symbolic union with the semiotic body.

About the Author
Martha Carpentier is currently an associate professor in the English Department at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, USA.

Reviews

"This is a creative work for linking literature, religion, and anthropology...the book would make for a valuable classroom text to explore such linkages in an introductory fashion."

Book Information
ISBN 9781138985483
Author Martha Carpentier
Format Paperback
Page Count 228
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g