The Fourth Function. Otherness and Marginality in Indo-European Ideology.
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 16144 |
| Format | 15 x 21.5 |
| Détails | 410 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2012 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
According to Salman Rushdie's character Sir Darius, "three functions are not enough; there has to be a fourth..." "Impossible," replied Methwold. "Old George's three concepts fill the entire social landscape." "Yes," said Sir Darius. "But what about the exterior, everything that is considered outside of society, above the fray? The only people who see the whole picture are those who step outside the frame." In fact, the tripartite structure discovered by Georges Dumézil does not exhaust the ideology of the ancient Indo-European peoples; the great scholar was aware of this: neither the Vedic god Rudra, nor the Scandinavian Loki, nor the Greek Apollo find their place there! Yet the already old hypothesis of the fourth function has not yet taken root. The authors, drawing on the understanding of number and the system of colors, demonstrate the interpretative fecundity of the quadrifunctional hypothesis in the vast domain that extends from the ancient Indians, Greeks and Romans to the "last pagans" of the Hindu Kush, passing through medieval Ireland and Scandinavia. They outline and deepen the field of the fourth function - the remainder, the abnormal, the ambiguous, the passage, the Other; stranger, executioner, slave, shepherd, monster, rogue, poet or prophet - their paradoxical usefulness, their pervasive dynamism.
According to Salman Rushdie's character Sir Darius, "three functions are not enough; there has to be a fourth..." "Impossible," replied Methwold. "Old George's three concepts fill the entire social landscape." "Yes," said Sir Darius. "But what about the exterior, everything that is considered outside of society, above the fray? The only people who see the whole picture are those who step outside the frame." In fact, the tripartite structure discovered by Georges Dumézil does not exhaust the ideology of the ancient Indo-European peoples; the great scholar was aware of this: neither the Vedic god Rudra, nor the Scandinavian Loki, nor the Greek Apollo find their place there! Yet the already old hypothesis of the fourth function has not yet taken root. The authors, drawing on the understanding of number and the system of colors, demonstrate the interpretative fecundity of the quadrifunctional hypothesis in the vast domain that extends from the ancient Indians, Greeks and Romans to the "last pagans" of the Hindu Kush, passing through medieval Ireland and Scandinavia. They outline and deepen the field of the fourth function - the remainder, the abnormal, the ambiguous, the passage, the Other; stranger, executioner, slave, shepherd, monster, rogue, poet or prophet - their paradoxical usefulness, their pervasive dynamism.