Almut-Barbara Renger – författare

When Oedipus met the Sphinx on the road to Thebes, he did more than answer a riddle - he spawned a myth that, told and retold, would become one of Western culture's central narratives about self-understanding. Identifying the story as a threshold myth - in which the hero crosses over into an unknown and dangerous realm where rules and limits are not known - Oedipus and the Sphinx offers a fresh account of this mythic encounter and how it deals with the concepts of liminality and otherness. Almut-Barbara Renger assesses the story's meanings and functions in classical antiquity - from its presence in ancient vase painting to its absence in Sophocles' tragedy - before arriving at two of its major reworkings in European modernity: the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and the poetics of Jean Cocteau. Through her readings, she highlights the ambiguous status of the Sphinx and reveals Oedipus himself to be a liminal creature, providing key insights into Sophocles' portrayal and establishing a theoretical framework that organizes evaluations of the myth's reception in the twentieth century.Revealing the narrative of Oedipus and the Sphinx to be the very paradigm of a key transition experienced by all of humankind, Renger situates myth between the competing claims of science and art in an engagement that has important implications for current debates in literary studies, psychoanalytic theory, cultural history, and aesthetics.

Just as we speak of "dead" languages, we say that religions "die out." Yet sometimes, people try to revive them, today more than ever. New Antiquities addresses this phenomenon through critical examination of how individuals and groups appeal to, reconceptualize, and reinvent the religious world of the ancient Mediterranean as they attempt to legitimize developments in contemporary religious culture and associated activity. Drawing from the disciplines of religious studies, archaeology, history, philology, and anthropology, New Antiquities explores a diversity of cultic and geographic milieus, ranging from Goddess Spirituality to Neo-Gnosticism, from rural Oregon to the former Yugoslavia. As a survey of the reception of ancient religious works, figures, and ideas in later twentieth-century and contemporary alternative religious practice, New Antiquities will interest classicists, Egyptologists, and historians of religion of many stripes, particularly those focused on modern Theosophy, Gnosticism, Neopaganism, New Religious Movements, Magick, and Occulture. The book is written in a lively and engaging style that will appeal to professional scholars and advanced undergraduates as well as lay scholars.

Just as we speak of “dead” languages, we say that religions “die out.” Yet sometimes, people try to revive them, today more than ever. New Antiquities addresses this phenomenon through critical examination of how individuals and groups appeal to, reconceptualize, and reinvent the religious world of the ancient Mediterranean as they attempt to legitimize developments in contemporary religious culture and associated activity.Drawing from the disciplines of religious studies, archaeology, history, philology, and anthropology, New Antiquities explores a diversity of cultic and geographic milieus, ranging from Goddess Spirituality to Neo-Gnosticism, from rural Oregon to the former Yugoslavia. As a survey of the reception of ancient religious works, figures, and ideas in later twentieth-century and contemporary alternative religious practice, New Antiquities will interest classicists, Egyptologists, and historians of religion of many stripes, particularly those focused on modern Theosophy, Gnosticism, Neopaganism, New Religious Movements, Magick, and Occulture. The book is written in a lively and engaging style that will appeal to professional scholars and advanced undergraduates as well as lay scholars.

Der Band bietet einen Überblick über Sukzession in Religionen als Mittel der Legitimation von Autorität und Wissen sowie über die mit Sukzessionen verbundene Ausbreitung von Wissen. An einzelnen regional und sozial differenzierten Fallbeispielen aus der Zeit vom 2. Jt. v. Chr. bis ins 16. Jh. n. Chr. werden Nachfolgestrukturen typologisch klassifiziert und erörtert. Der geographische Horizont spannt sich vom Mittelmeerraum bis nach Japan. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf Religionen, die über eine Kette von Amtsinhabern verfügen, die bis auf eine mythische, literarisch fiktive oder historisch greifbare Gründerfigur zurückgeht und mittels oder zwecks Autoritätslegitimierung Wissen, Befähigung u.a. weitergibt. Bei der Nachzeichnung dieser Weitergaben lassen sich Individuen und Gruppen in Raum und Zeit verorten und die Konstruktion von Identitäten einzelner Dynastien, Kasten oder Schulen aufweisen. Die in diesem Band gesammelten religionssoziologischen und religionsgeschichtlichen Studien erhellen grundsätzlich den Zusammenhang von Wissen, Autorität und Personalität und thematisieren speziell Wissensketten und -netzwerke in Religionen der Antike und des Alten Orients sowie in Judentum, Christentum, Islam, Hinduismus, Buddhismus und Daoismus.

Der von Ovid erzählte Mythos von Narcissus, der sich in sein Spiegelbild verliebt, hat von der Antike an eine außerordentliche Wirkungsgeschichte gehabt. Dieser Band stellt in zehn Studien die Rezeption des Mythos dar und verfolgt, wie Narziß zu einem der zentralen Mythen im 20. Jahrhundert werden konnte.

Märchen oder Mythos? Worin liegt der Unterschied? Die Autorin untersucht Texte von der Antike bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, z. B. Kafka und Benjamin, und grenzt Märchen und Mythos als zwei verschiedene Erzählmöglichkeiten voneinander ab. Eine wichtige Studie für Komparatistik, Literaturgeschichte und Altphilologie.