English167
Mythology and Folklore
Fall 1998		 Dr. L. Weston
Peters 456
278--4927



The study of mythology and folklore is the study of those images, stories and rituals by which we construct ourselves as human beings within human societies. In this class we will investigate and discuss particularly the way myths, folk tales and folk practices are recorded in written texts, both inside and outside the communities and cultures in which they occur. Who is collecting and relating these stories? And how are we to read them, and perhaps integrate them in our own lives and literatures? What can analysis of myths and mythic discourses reveal about constructions of gender, class, ethnicity, nationality, humanity?

Required Work and Grading:
(1) Reading and discussion of assigned texts (10%)
NB:To participate meaningfully in class discussions, you must attend class. Any more than five unexcused absences will lower your final grade in the course by one letter grade. Ten or more absences will earn you an "F" in the course.

(2) Two Midterm Exams (10% each)
(3) Two short (3-5 page) papers (10% each)
(4) Research Project (25%)
(5) Final Exam (25%).
Required books:

COURSE OUTLINE:
WEEK ONE  
Aug24 Introductions
26& 28 Oral Culture, Folklore, Myth and Literature
(Handouts and Exercises)


WEEKSTWO THROUGH FOUR: READINGMYTH AND TEXT
Aug31 Oral"Texts": Epic of Son--Jara (excerpt)
Sept2 Creationand Cosmology:
Genesis, the Big Bang, Hildegard of Bingen
4 Lakoff & Johnson, "Concepts We Live By"
LeGuin, "Some Generative Metaphors"
Sons of the Moon-Bone
7 LaborDay (No Class)
9 TheBlessing Way
The Holy Way
11 Sapsucker
Raven Travelling
14 The Popol Vuh (excerpt)
Cantares Mexicanos (excerpt)
16 The Trickster: "How Master Renard Enticed Ysengrim" and "The Tar Baby"
18 Femmes Fatales: Keats, "La Belle Dame," Henly & Leadon, "Witchy Woman" and Stoker, Dracula (excerpt)


WEEKS FIVE THROUGH SEVEN: MYTH AND RITUAL TEXTS>
Sept21
-- 25		 Enuma Elish
28 -- 30 Inanna's Journey to Hell
Oct2-- 9 Sandars,Epic of Gilgamesh,
9 FIRST MIDTERM / ESSAY I ASSIGNED


WEEKS EIGHT THROUGH TEN: MYTH AND LITERARY TEXT
Oct12-30 Ovid, Metamorphoses


WEEKS ELEVEN THROUGH FOURTEEN: MYTHIC PASTS PRESERVED IN TEXTS
   
I.CELTIC TRADITIONS
  
Nov2-13
 Kinsella,The Tam
   
II.GERMANIC TRADITIONS
  
16- 25
 Terry,Poems of the Elder Edda
Nov 27
 THANKSGIVING (no class)
Nov 30
 SECOND MIDTERM / ESSAY 2 ASSIGNED
   
WEEKS FIFTEEN AND SIXTEEN:
 MYTH AND "EPIC"
DEC2
-- 7
 Beowulf
Dec9 PROJECT DUE
   
AND THEN THE FINAL EXAM:  
Dec16
 1530--1730

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