ENG 4643/5653, Mythology

Spring 2005

Study Guide for Final Examination

I. Terms for Identification (10 items @ 3 points each). I will provide characterizations for terms from the following list, which will be available on the exam as a word bank.

• polygenesis
• monogenesis
• diffusion
• euhemerism
• ethnic euhemerism
• Age of Gods
• humanität
• visit marriage
• geomythology
• tripartition
• unilinear cultural evolution
• survival
• repression
• cloacal theory of birth
• pregnancy envy
• collective unconscious
• archetype
• structuralism
• mediated binary opposition

II. Essay I (30 points). Be prepared to write on how different theoretical approaches (euhemerism, ethnic euhemerism, unilinear cultural evolution, psychoanalysis, analytic psychology, structuralism) answer the two basic issues in mythological study: that of multiple occurrence, that of irrationality. I will choose one of the issues and two or three of the approaches for your essay.

III. Essay II (40 points). Be prepared to write on either of these topics. I will choose one of them for your essay.

• 1. The "truth" of myth revisited: how the ideas of Freud, Jung, and Lévi-Strauss can be integrated into Raphael Pettazzoni’s concepts of mythic truth: on the literal level, on the figurative level, and as a pragmatic way of dealing with the world.
• 2. Myth and "primitive" thought: what myth reveals about the way in which humans (or perhaps just primitive humans) think, continuities and discontinuities between "primitive" and "civilized" thought.