TY - JOUR A1 - Lovatt, Helen ED - Potter, Amanda ED - Gardner, Hunter H. T1 - Resurrecting the Argo BT - Supernatural Re-makings in Robert Holdstock’s Merlin Codex JF - thersites 17 N2 - This paper analyses the relationship between the figure of the Argo (ship and character) and the supernatural in the mythic fantasy of Robert Holdstock’s Merlin Codex. It shows how Holdstock’s re-writing of the Argonautica draws on various versions from the Argonautic tradition, including Euripides’ Medea, Apollonius, Valerius Flaccus, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Treece and the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts. It sets Holdstock’s Argo alongside other representations, as divine herself, possessed by divinity, and a channel of communication with the divine, and in the context of Holdstock’s previous work, particularly Mythago Wood, Lavondyss and Merlin’s Wood. The paper argues that Holdstock uses the Argo as a reflection of myth itself, a version of the forest in Mythago Wood, as well as a metapoetic image for the challenges and complexities of adapting a well-known story, bringing multiple mythological traditions (Arthurian, Finnish and Argonautic) together. It reflects on Holdstock’s relationship to the ancient genres of epic and tragedy, as well as Argo as plot facilitator and mechanism of transformation and transition. Holdstock’s relationship with ancient literature is richer and deeper than previously acknowledged; his self-conscious plays reveal a deep understanding of the polymorphous nature of mythical traditions. KW - Holdstock KW - Merlin Codex KW - Argonauts KW - Argo KW - myth Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol17.254 SN - 2364-7612 VL - 2023 IS - 17 SP - 55 EP - 95 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hadad, Yemima T1 - Hasidic Myth-Activism BT - Martin Buber’s Theopolitical Revision of Volkish Nationalism JF - Religions N2 - Since the 1970s, Buber has often been suspected of being a Volkish thinker. This essay reconsiders the affinity of Buber’s late writings with Volkish ideology. It examines the allegations against Buber’s Volkish thought in light of his later biblical and Hasidic writings. By illuminating the ideological affinity between these two modes of thought, the essay explains how Buber aims to depart from the dangers of myth without rejecting myth as such. I argue that Buber’s relationship to myth can help us to explain his critique of nationalism. My basic argument is that in his struggle with hyper-nationalism, Buber follows the Baal Shem Tov and his struggle against Sabbateanism. Like the Besht, Buber does not reject myth, but seeks instead to repair it from within. Whereas hyper-nationalism uses myth to advance its political goals, Buber seeks to reposition ethics within a mythic framework. I view Buber’s exegesis and commentaries on biblical and Hasidic myths as myth-activism. KW - Myth-Activism KW - Martin Buber KW - theopolitics KW - Zionism KW - Hasidism KW - myth KW - activism KW - Volkism KW - Judaism KW - politics Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10020096 SN - 2077-1444 VL - 10 IS - 2 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -