Madness and Civilizaton

1961 book by Michel Foucault which argued that the rise of mental illness in the western world was necessitated by the aspirations of the enlightenment and the power structures it introduced.

The Maenads

"The maenads, or bacchanites, were a group of female devotees who left their homes to roam the wilderness in ecstatic devotion to Dionysus" [Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation].

Magdalen College, Oxford

Oxford University college, in which Lewis served as a Fellow from 1925 to 54.

magic lantern

An early, 19th Century forerunner of the motion picture projector.

Malvern Hills

Hills forming the southern border of the central English county of Worcesthire.

mana

"[I]n some indigenous beliefs, as in Polynesia, a dynamic supernatural power or influence dwelling in and flowing from certain individuals, spirits, or things and capable of producing great good or evil" [New World Dictionary].

"Man Born Blind"

Short story by C. S. Lewis, first published in The Dark Tower and Other Stories (1977).

Manichaeism

"[A]ncient religion named for its founder, the Persian sage Mani (circa 216-76?); for a period of several centuries, it presented a major challenge to Christianity" [Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation].

Marxist criticsm

A critical approach to the study of literature/culture which emphasizes the economic circumstances that govern the production of works of literature, art, etc.

maya

The Hindu term for "illusion."

Medea

"[A] devotee of the goddess Hecate, and one of the great sorceresses of the ancient world. She was the daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun god" [Encyclopedia Mythica].

Medusa

In Greek myth, one of the Gorgons; a terrifying female monster with snakes for hair, whose image turned all who saw her to stone. She was killed by the hero Perseus.

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Partly dictated (to Aniela Jaffé), partly written autobiography by C. G. Jung.

mentalism

"Any doctrine insisting upon the exclusive reality of minds and their inner states" (DPR).

Mephistopheles

"A manufactured name of a devil or familiar spirit which first appeared in the late medieval Faust legend. The name is possibly derived from three Greek words meaning 'not loving the light'" [Encyclopedia Mythica].

Mercutio

In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Romeo's closest friend.

Mere Christianity

1952 book by C. S. Lewis, comprising three "broadcast talks" given on the BBC.

Merlin

Fabled English sorcerer, friend and advisor to King Arthur.

The Messiah

Famous oratorio by Handel, first performed in Dublin in 1742.

The Metamorphosis of Plants

Goethe's 1790 study of botanical morphology (the word itself was coined by Goethe).

Metaphors We Live By

1983 book by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.

metaphysical poets

A "school" of 17th century British poetry (John Donne, Robert Herrick, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherene) characterized by intricate language and predominantly religious themes.

Mimesis

Book, subtitled "The Representation of Reality in Western Literature," by Erich Auerbach, one of the key works of literary theory and criticism in the 20th Century.

mimetic

Imitative, from "mimesis," the Greek word Aristotle used in The Poetics to characterize the major function of art (he was thinking of tragic drama).

Minerva

Roman goddess of war, wisdom, medicine, and science and trade.

Minotaur

"Before he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval by the gods for his reign. He promised to sacrifice the bull as an offering, and as a symbol of subservience. A beautiful white bull rose from the sea, but when Minos saw it, he coveted it for himself. He assumed that Poseidon would not mind, so he kept it and sacrificed the best specimen from his herd instead. When Poseidon learned about the deceit, he made Pasipha, Minos' wife, fall madly in love with the bull. She had Daedalus, the famous architect, make a wooden cow for her. Pasipha climbed into the decoy and fooled the white bull. The offspring of their lovemaking was a monster called the Minotaur" [Encyclopedia Mythica].

Miracles

1947 book by C. S. Lewis, subtitled "A Preliminary Study."

mise-en-scéne

Literally "the matter of the scene"; in film, all those aspects of a movie that pertain to arrangement of an image in a frame.

missing link

The long-held but never proven hypothesis in evolutionary theory that there exists on the evolutionary ladder a not-yet-discovered human ancestor somewhere between apes and homo sapiens.

University of Missouri

Located in Columbia, the largest university in the state of Missouri. At the behest of Professors Howard Fulweiler and Richard Hocks, Barfield was a Visiting Professor there in 1969.

Mithraic

According to Microsoft Encarta, Mithraism was "one of the major religions of the Roman Empire, the cult of Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light and wisdom. In the Avesta, the sacred Zoroastrian writings (see Zoroastrianism) of the ancient Persians, Mithra appears as the chief yazata (Avestan, "beneficent one"), or good spirit, and ruler of the world."

Mnemosyne

The Greek goddess of memory, who gave birth to the Muses (Zeus was the father).

Mods and Rockers

The mods and rockers were rival youth groups in the 1960s who rioted on the beaches of several English seaside towns, most notably Brighton. The mods were scrupulously well-dressed and used speed as their drug of choice; the rockers wore black leather and greased back their hair; both groups travelled around on their motorbikes.The film Quadraphenia  produced by The Who is a wonderful cinematic treatment of the phenomenon. [Thanks to Dr. Angela Hague]

Mohawk

American Indian tribe, part of the Iroquois League.

Moll Flanders

Title character in a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1722.

monad

In Leibniz' philosophy, the "windowless" and immaterial constituent building blocks of matter.

monistic

The opposite of dualist. The belief that reality is made up of one single principle/substance.

Montagues and Capulets

The two warring families in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

moving image of eternity

"When the father creator saw the creature which he had made moving and living, the created image of the eternal gods, he rejoiced, and in his joy determined to make the copy still more like the original; and as this was eternal, he sought to make the universe eternal, so far as might be. Now the nature of the ideal being was everlasting, but to bestow this attribute in its fulness upon a creature was impossible. Wherefore he resolved to have a moving image of eternity, and when he set in order the heaven, he made this image eternal but moving according to number, while eternity itself rests in unity; and this image we call time."--from Plato's Timaeus (Benjamin Jowett translation).

Mu

Like Atlantis, a supposed ancient civilization which vanished without a trace.

multiculturalism

The late 20th century belief that a true and just society embraces all cultures and ethnicities.

the muses

"The Greek goddesses who presided over the arts and sciences. They were believed to inspire all artists, especially poets, philosophers, and musicians. The Muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory" [Encyclopedia Mythica].

music of the spheres

The pre-Copernican belief that the very motion of the universe--Ptolemaic theory held that each heavenly body was embedded in a crystalline sphere, each sphere nested within the sphere of the next object in the hierarchy--produced cosmic "music."

Mysteries, the

"Secret rites and ceremonies connected with various religious worships of ancient Greece and Rome. These rites and ceremonies were known to, and practiced by, congregations of men and women who had been duly initiated; no other persons were allowed to participate. The origin and purpose of the mysteries are unknown" [Microsoft Encarta]

Mystics of the Renaissance

Book by Rudolf Steiner which examines the Renaissance's rediscovery of classical esoteric thought.

mythic criticism

"An interpretive approach to literature that analyzes mythic structures and themes as they are recurrently manifested in literary genres and individual works" [The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms].

mythopoeic

Descriptive of literature, usually classified as fantasy, which utilizes or evokes mythic or archetypal themes.