ENG 4623/5623, Mythology

Spring 2005, TR 11:00-12:15 (W303)

W. M. Clements (W408; Office hours: MW 4:00-5:00, TR 8:45-9:30, 1:30-2:30, and by appointment)

Phone: 972-2226

E-mail: wclement@astate.edu

Website: www.clt.astate.edu/wclement

Textbooks

Dundes, ed., Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth

Leonard and McClure, Myth and Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology

Silko, Ceremony

Schedule

Jan. 11 - Introduction

13 - Myth as Narrative (in Dundes: Bascom, pp. 5-29)

18 - Myth as Narrative (in Dundes: Pettazzoni, pp. 98-109)

20 - Myth as Idea and Process (in Dundes: Gaster, pp. 110-136)

25 - Creation Myths (in Dundes: Rooth, pp. 166-192; Leonard and McClure, pp. 1-31)

27 - Creation Myths (Leonard and McClure, pp. 32-67)

Feb. 1 - Creation Myths (Leonard and McClure, pp. 68-101)

3 - Cosmology (in Dundes: Erdesz, pp. 315-335)

8 - Theology (Leonard and McClure, pp. 102-154)

10 - Theology (Leonard and McClure, pp. 154-208)

15 - Theology (Leonard and McClure, pp. 208-245)

17 - The Hero

22 - Trickster (Leonard and McClure, pp. 247-319)

24 - EXAMINATION (For a study guide for this examination, click here.)

Mar. 1 - Myth and Sacred Space (Leonard and McClure, pp. 320-374)

3 - Myth and the Individual (Silko, pp. 1-130)

8 - Myth and the Individual (Silko, pp. 131-262)

10 - Myth in Culture (in Dundes: Malinowski, pp. 193-206)

15-17 - SPRING BREAK

22 - Myth in Culture (in Dundes: Firth, pp. 207-216; Van Baaren, pp. 217-224)

24 - Myth and Ritual (in Dundes: Eliade, pp. 137-151; Hultkrantz, pp. 152-165)

29 - EXAMINATION  (For a study guide for this examination, click here.)

31 - Interpreting Myth (in Dundes: De Vries, pp. 30-40; Honko, pp. 152-165)

Apr. 5 - Euhemerism (in Dundes: Numazawa, pp. 182-192)

7 - Culture Evolution/Solar Allegory (in Dundes: Frazer, pp. 72-97)

12 - Depth Psychology: Psychoanalysis (in Dundes: Dundes, pp. 270-294)

14 - Depth Psychology: Analytic Psychology (in Dundes: Jung, pp.244-255)

19 - Structuralism (in Dundes: Lévi-Strauss, pp. 295-314)

21 - Conclusion (in Dundes: Wender, pp. 336-342)

28 - EXAMINATION (12:30-2:30) (For a study guide for this examination, click here.)

1. Examinations (24 February, 29 March, 2? April). These will combine object and essay components and will involve material drawn from assigned readings as well as from class discussions. Each exam counts one-sixth of your final grade.

2. Informal Essays. During the course of the semester, each student will write six informal essays over the theoretical readings–that is, assigned material in Dundes’ Sacred Narrative (but not over material in Leonard and McClure’s Myth and Knowing or Silko’s Ceremony). Two essays are due before the first examination (24 February), two more are due before the second examination (29 March), and the last two are due before or on the last day of class (21 April). You can submit only one essay per class period, and the essay must be submitted at the beginning of the period for which the assigned reading is due. Each essay should be a couple of typed, double-spaced pages in length. It should summarize the reading’s argument and perhaps suggest its applicability to the study of myth. Your principal task is to explicate rather than critique what you read. Informal essays may be turned in early only by giving them to me or by placing them in my mailbox in W313. Do not slip them under my office door! E-mail submissions are fine if the paper is double-spaced and if the time and date of submission are prior to 11:00 on the day for which the reading is assigned. The combined grade of these essays (which will be based primarily on whether you have restated the reading’s point[s] more or less accurately) will constitute one-sixth of your final grade.

3. Creating a Creation Myth. Write a creation "myth." Then annotate it, using Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. Then write a two-page essay in which you explain how the myth conforms to and departs from intercultural cosmogonic patterns and how it reflects the processes of mythopoesis. You will received fuller instructions for this project on 1 February. The project is due at the beginning of class on 17 February. It will count one-sixth of your final grade. For further information about this project, click here.

4. Myth in Modern Culture. Write a five-page documented essay in which you show how myth (either a specific mythological tradition or cross-cultural patterns in mythology) has influenced some aspect of contemporary (i.e., post-1975) expressive culture (for example, literature, film, music, or television). You will receive fuller instructions for this project on 31 March. It is due on the last day of class, and will constitute one-sixth of your final grade. For further information about this project, click here.

5. Extra Work for Graduate Students. Each graduate student will write nine informal essays as described in Requirement 2. Three are due before the first examination, three before the second examination, and three before or on the last day of class.

6. Make-Up Examinations; Late Papers. Make-up examinations will be given only with a justifiable, verified excuse (illness, serious family emergency, university business, inclement weather [commuter students only]). Exams must be made up within a week after your returning to class at some time during regularly scheduled office hours. You are responsible for initiating the process to make up an examination. Papers will be considered late if turned in after class time on the assigned date. Late papers designed to fulfill Requirement 3 will be accepted (with the loss of a letter grade) for up to two weeks after the due date only; late papers for Requirement 4 will not be accepted after the final examination period. Unless prior arrangements have been made, late informal essays will not be accepted. Remember that failure to take an example or to turn in a project will result in a zero for one-sixth of your final grade.

7. Attendance. Although university attendance policy does not apply to this course, excessive absences will affect your final grade both indirectly and directly. Missing more than eight classes with a justifiable, verified excuse will result in the loss of one letter from your final average.

8. Inclement Weather Policy. This course will meet unless the university closes. Absences due to inclement weather will be counted as excused for commuter students only.

9. Special Needs. If you have special needs as specified by the Office of Disability Services, see me as soon as possible so that we can make appropriate arrangements.