{"id":1469,"date":"2024-10-28T21:21:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T01:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2024-10-28T21:21:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T01:21:41","slug":"mythopoeia-the-princess-bride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2024\/10\/28\/mythopoeia-the-princess-bride\/","title":{"rendered":"Mythopoeia & The Princess Bride"},"content":{"rendered":"

While browsing <\/span>Mythlore\u2019s <\/span><\/i>Spring\/Summer 2024 issue, I came across an article discussing <\/span>The Princess Bride<\/span><\/i> and the state of scholarly research on William Goldman\u2019s work. As G. Connor Salter confirms in his article \u201cWhatever Happened to <\/span>The Princess Bride<\/span><\/i>?: Thoughts for Further William Goldman Research,\u201d there are very few scholarly sources on both Goldman and the novel, so when I found the article, I knew I had to take a closer look. The article itself is only a few pages long, but it was filled with information on both existing research on Goldman and ideas for more exploration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the article didn\u2019t provide any deep analysis on <\/span>The Princess Bride<\/span><\/i>, it did shed some light on both Goldman\u2019s history and some popular themes in his works. One of the themes Salter mentions in connection with <\/span>The Princess Bride,<\/span><\/i> however, is escapism. This stood out to me because I discussed escapism in my previous blog post while analyzing a December 1973 <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> issue. When the novel came out in 1973, the US was in the midst of the Cold War and the Vietnam War, so it makes sense that people wanted an escape from reality. Salter references Richard Anderson\u2019s 1979 book <\/span>William Goldman<\/span><\/i>, connecting this idea of escapism, which Anderson claims is apparent in all of Goldman\u2019s work, to mythopoeia and the grandson\u2019s interactions with the text in the film adaptation (185-186).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Salter\u2019s introduction to mythopoeia also stood out to me while reading the article, initially because of its unfamiliarity. The <\/span>OED <\/span><\/i>defines \u201cmythopoeia\u201d as \u201cthe creation of a myth or myths\u201d (\u201cMythopoeia, N.\u201d). I think connecting <\/span>The Princess Bride<\/span><\/i> to mythopoeia is interesting given that Goldman spends so much time trying to convince his audience that the entire story is true, along with the existence of S. Morgenstern. Furthermore, myths tend to explain something or feature some sort of lesson. If <\/span>The Princess Bride<\/span><\/i> is supposed to be read as a myth, what is the lesson it\u2019s teaching and how does Goldman communicate it?<\/span> As I continue my research on The Princess Bride<\/em>, I hope to explore its potential connection between mythopoeia and paratext.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMythopoeia, N.\u201d Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, <\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/OED\/2378832276<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Salter, G. Connor. \u201cWhatever Happened to <\/span>The Princess Bride<\/span><\/i>?: Thoughts for Further William Goldman Research.\u201d <\/span>Mythlore<\/span><\/i>, vol. 42, no. 2 (144), 2024, pp. 181\u201387. <\/span>JSTOR<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/48771997<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 27 Oct. 2024.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While browsing Mythlore\u2019s Spring\/Summer 2024 issue, I came across an article discussing The Princess Bride and the state of scholarly research on William Goldman\u2019s work. As G. Connor Salter confirms in his article \u201cWhatever Happened to The Princess Bride?: Thoughts for Further William Goldman Research,\u201d there are very few scholarly sources on both Goldman and … Continue reading Mythopoeia & The Princess Bride<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}