Myth and the New Science

In the eighteenth century Giambattista Vico formulated his theories of history of human civilization as The New Science, in a gesture which curiously parallels the proclamation of a new epistemology by the father of history, Herodotus, in the fifth century bc. In the history of history, we continuously see this mode of knowledge re-created and displayed anew, as new, and the discourse from which it repeatedly emerges is most often that of myth. This relationship is not simply one of opposition, as the early historians appropriate myth even while they seem to separate their works from this kind of story-telling. A similarly complex relationship can be seen today between myth and history. Contemporary views of the social significance of myth have clear affinities with histories of mentalité, and the importance of history in shaping individual and collective identity. In both oral and written history can be seen mythicizing structures, through which events in time can be made meaningful beyond time. In the twentieth century, the importance of memory, and of the performance of memory, has become pressing for the reaffirmation of humanity. At the same time, we see that history has become one of the most dominant systems of knowledge in the Western World, subsuming almost entirely literary and art criticism, and placing strongholds in the domains of philosophy and the sciences. This conference aims to explore the question of the many relationships between different forms of ‘scientific’ knowledge and myth, with especial focus on the claims made in different epochs to the instauration of a ‘new science’, and the mythic status of those very claims.

This conference will take place in the University of Bristol in July 2006. Papers are welcomed on any of the following aspects: myth and the new sciences of antiquity, Renaissance humanism, the Enlightenment, history of science, the new historicism, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, and the role of history in the discourses of mythology. Pre-arranged panels will also be welcome. Proposals for papers should come in the form of abstracts (one side of A4/US letter) to Dr. Ellen O’Gorman, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TB (tel. +44 117 928 9848; fax. +44 117 928 8678; email. e.c.ogorman@bris.ac.uk), by 30 June 2005.