Wendy Doniger
Originally trained as a dancer, Wendy Doniger completed her undergraduate work at Radcliffe College in 1962 and completed two doctoral degrees, at Harvard and Oxford Universities, specializing in Sanskrit and Indian studies (what is sometimes called Oriental studies). She has held teaching positions at Harvard, Oxford, the University of London, and UC Berkeley and has taught at the University of Chicago since 1978, where she is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, in the Divinity School, as well as holding appointments in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations as well as the Committee of Social Thought. In 1985 she was the president of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the field's primary professional association in North America. She has written extensively (publishing earlier in her career under the surname O'Flaherty) on the religions of India, in particular the study of ancient Hindu myths but she has also translated into English a number of key ancient Hindu texts (including the Rig Veda as well as the Kamasutra) along with modern works of scholarship (such as the multi-volume French work of Yves Bonnefoy, Mythologies [1981]). Her interest in cross-cultural, comparative work extends well beyond the myths of India; her general interest in such topics as gender, sexuality, and personal/social identity enables her to do comparative work in a wide range of historical periods and cultural settings, evident especially in her later works.
Major Works
Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit (1975;
translator)
Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology (1980)
Siva: The Erotic Ascetic (1981)
Dreams, Illusions, and Other Realities (1986)
Other People's Myths: The Cave of Echoes (1988/1995)
The Laws of Manu (1991; translator)
The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth (1998)
Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India
(1999)
The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade (2000)
Kamasutra (2002; translator)
The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was: Myths of Self-Imitation
(2004)
The Rig Veda (2005; translator)
Quotation
"It is customary in scholarly approaches to myth to begin with a
definition. I have always resisted this, for I am less interested in dictating
what a myth is (more precisely, what it is not, for definitions
are usually exclusivist) than in exploring what myth does (and
in trying to demonstrate as inclusive a range of functions as possible).
Defining myth requires building up the sorts of boundaries and barriers
that I have always avoided..."
- from Wendy Doniger, The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in
Myth (1998)
Select Web Resources on Doniger
Wendy
Doniger's faculty web page
"Terror and Gallows Humor: After September 11?" by Wendy Doniger
"Myths of Self Masquerade" (requires Quicktime)
"The Mythology of Self-Imitation in Passing: Race, Gender, and Politics,"
Wendy Doniger's Dean's Lecture at Radcliffe College (November 18, 2004)
(1:20 video lecture; requires RealPlayer)
Secondary Literature on Doniger and Religion
Kees W. Bolle, "Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty in Retrospect," Religious
Studies Review 10/1 (1984): 20-25.
J. E. Llewellyn, "The Clinging Spider Web of Context: A Review of The
Implied Spider by Wendy Doniger," Religious Studies Review
26/1 (2000): 43-48.