Towards New Materialism or Semioclasm and its Discontents: Review of Laurence Coupe, 'Myth', 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2009)

Abstract

How to negotiate three islands of thought: the sign as concrete entity which relates to concept and image, ideas-in-form; Hume's claim that humanity's first ideas of religion arose not from the contemplation of the works of nature, but primitive fear of the environment (and the unfamiliar within) founded myth, which is the origin of religion; and potentially liberating natural contract of Michael Serres' archaic consciousness as radical nostalgia? You may wish to fasten your seatbelt when you open Coupe's revised edition of the Critical Idiom on myth but it is unnecessary for this thoroughly engaging enquiry into the mechanics of myth and the methodological and ideological implications of mythology is not only wise and clear but highly accessible. Coupe's two-part text aims to cast light upon the mythopoeic imagination by means of a critical examination of: (a) what it means to read myth - a form of practical criticism; and (b) what constitutes mythic reading - how the interpretation of myth can lend itself to the making of myths.