Art, Myth and Ritual in Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness

Critical discussions of Ursula K. Le Guin's novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, fall generally into three main areas of emphasis: political, feminist/political and anthropological. Although these are all certainly legitimate approaches, unfortunately little attention has been paid to the important issue of the work's implications in terms of archetypal, psychological and literary theory. Politically-oriented critics generally confine themselves to a historical framework and so miss the contrast Le Guin draws between historic and pre-historic cultures in her argument against totalitarianism; they also tend to neglect her affirmation of the subversive potential of ritual and art.1 Feminist critics either minimize, denigrate or wholly ignore the implications of the archetypal content of LED for the women's movement that was gaining momentum when the book was first published in 1969; they also too frequently assume that science fiction should be overtly prescriptive, and consequently fail to recognize Le Guin's ironic intent in her presentation of a protagonist with an excessively masculine point of view.2 Critics who do focus on myth and ritual usually limit their argument by using either a sociological/anthro- pological frame of reference or paradigms from Eastern religious practices, which exclude consideration of the significance of matriarchal culture in LHD and of the idea that art itself can be seen as a form of ritual with therapeutic potential3-both issues which I hope to demonstrate are central concerns in Le Guin's work

Argument (complex analysis · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Themes in Literature Analysis

• The nature of culture

  A L Kroeber•The nature of culture•1987

  Add to list

• The Myth of the Eternal Return

  Mircea Eliade, Jonathan Z Smith et al.•Myth of the Eternal Return•2019

  Add to list

• Art and the Creative Unconscious

  Donald Brook, Erich Neumann et al.•Leonardo•1983

  Add to list

• Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors

  Victor Turner•Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors•2018

  Add to list

• Shamanism. The Beginnings of Art

  John E Longhurst, Andreas Lommel•Journal for the Scientific Study…•1969

  Add to list