Böcker av Mineke Schipper

A radical exploration of the power and public (mis)representation of women's bodies, from ancient mysteries to the present day.Wild and strange stories have been told about the female body since antiquity. While legends of poisoned hymens and fanged vaginas circulated, the first creation figure, Mother Earth, fell out of popular cultural history and Christianity introduced the birth of woman, Eve, from a crooked rib. Ranging from the empowering to the absurd, ancient tales about the female figure and gendered body parts have not only survived the twenty-first century but continue to influence modern discourse.The Shrinking Goddess brings together these myths about the female form and traces subsequent male efforts to 'tame' it. Mineke Schipper examines how women's bodies have been represented since records began - the first Venus and vulva figures date to 40,000 BCE - and around the world, from the so-called island of menstruating men in Papua New Guinea to the Japanese supermarkets and European festivals where 'breast puddings' are still considered delicacies. Drawing together the vast reservoir of myths, proverbs, art, science and scripture that shape how women are seen in the present day, Schipper reclaims the female body as a source of power.The Shrinking Goddess will appeal to readers of Mary Beard, Angela Davis, Betty Friedan, Germaine Greer, Audre Lorde and Marina Warner

How did the world begin? How were the first people created and which specific roles were they supposed to play in the cosmos? Like other mythologies worldwide, China s creation and origin myths explain how man created order out of chaos and imposed culture on nature. Cross-cultural approaches to myth make us aware of the limitations of our own familiar classifications. This book makes a provocative case for the comparative study of the hidden treasures of China s oral and written myth traditions in different languages and cultures, a legacy generously left behind by singers, storytellers, poets, and writers. This book opens new doors to the study of Chinese mythologies, a surprising and so far almost unknown world outside China.

This study surveys a wide range of writings and ideas out of Africa by people of African descent on the various ways in which "insiders" and "outsiders", "self" and "otherness" have been imagined and defined from African perspectives. Five interviews with leading writers conclude the book.