ge 30b syllabus

8/17/2019 GE 30B Syllabus

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Neverending Stories:

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Myth

GE 30B

Winter 2014, MW 12:30-2, De Neve Auditorium

(De Neve P350)

Professors: Stephanie Jamison (SJ), Gregory Kendrick (GK), Joseph Nagy (JN)

Graduate Student Instructors: Steve Faulkner (SF), Elisa Harkness (EH), Lujing (Iris) Ma

Eisenman (LME), Laura Pierson (LP), Heather Sottong (HS)

WEEKLY TIMETABLE (Reading assignments are required unless otherwise indicated and

due by the dates given. Readings marked with a [w] are available on the course website.)

WEEK 1-2: Myths Diverging and Converging

M 1/6: GK, Introduction; “Buddha and Buddhism,” Wayne Bass (guest)reading: selections from Esposito, World Religions Today, and Buddhist literature (w)

http://www.gilgameshbar.com/






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W 1/8: Introduction and screening of Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Darmok (GK)

M 1/13: A discussion about how and why stories change (or stay the same) (GK)

Reading: Margaret Atwood, In Other Worlds (selection) (w)

TUESDAY 1/14, FIRST MYTH MOVIE NIGHT!

6PM, DE NEVE AUDITORIUM, Hero, directed by Zhang Yi Mou (2002)

W 1/15: Oedipus Past and Present (JN, SF)

Reading: selections from Apollodorus, Library¸Book 3.5.5-9, and other ancient texts pertaining

to Oedipus and his family (w); Edmunds, Oedipus, selection (w)

M 1/20: Holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)

WEEK 3-4: Old Wine in New Bottles: The Neverending Ramayana

W 1/22: The Ramayana and its Multiforms (SJ) Readings: Mahabharata, selection from Book 3, trans. van Buitenen (w);

Valmiki, Ramayana, selection from Book 5, trans. Goldman and Goldman (w)

W 1/22 QUIZ 1 (covering readings, in-class screenings, and lectures through 1/22)

M 1/27: The Ramayana and its Multiforms, cont. (SJ)

Oedipus and the Sphinx

(Attic Red-Figure Vase, 5th c. BC)

Oedipus and the Sphinx (Moreau)



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Reading:

1. Bhavabhuti, Uttararamacarita, Prologue and 1st Act, trans. Pollock (w);2. Cowell/Rouse, Jataka no. 461(w);

3. K. Ramanujan, “Three Hundred Ramayanas,” pp. 22-48 (w);

4. Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas, pp. 1-12 (=Chapter I, “The Text and the Research Context,” parts 1 and 2 [Intro, and “Tulsidas and the

Ramayana Tradition”]), and pp. 248-53 (= Chapter V: “Words Made Flesh: The Text Enacted,”

part 1 “The Ramlila Tradition”) (w)

Recommended Browsing:

“ Ramacaritamanasa” (w); “Scenes from the Ramayana” (w); British Library MS of Ramayana

(w); “Wayang Kulit / Ramayana” (w); Scott-Kimball, “Siam Shadow Puppets ‘Rama’ and‘Hanuman’” (w); “The Ramayana in Southeast Asia” (w); “ Ramakian” (w); “Temple of the

Emerald Buddha” (w).

PLEASE NOTE: Professor Jamison’s handouts for this section of the course (“Rāmāyana:

Outline of the Vālmīki Epic and Some Names” and “Rāma-kathā ["Rāma-story']: Some Other

Versions”) will be available on the course website.

W 1/29: In-Class Screening of Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

WEEKS 5-6: Men of Worth, Holy Hounds, and Chivalry: Myth and its Uses in the Middle Ages

M 2/3 (GK) Reading: Kendrick, The Heroic Ideal, pages 65-104; Geoffroi de Charny, A Knight’s Own Book

of Chivalry (selections) (w); Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend , trans. Caxton, selections

(Lives of Saints Fiacre and George) (w)

W 2/5: Men of Worth (cont.) (GK)

Ravana and Sita (Sita Sings the Blues)



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W 2/5: QUIZ 2 (covering readings, in-class screenings, and lectures from 1/22 to and

including 2/5

WEDNESDAY 2/5, SECOND MYTH MOVIE NIGHT! 6PM, DE NEVE AUDITORIUM

Sleeping Beauty (Disney, 1959)

The first paper is due on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, BY 4:45PM in the English Department

Office (Humanities 149) and on Turnitin by 11:59PM.

M 2/10: Medieval Adventure, Romance, and Myth (JN, HS) Reading (JN): Davies, Mabinogion, “Peredur son of Efrog” and “The Dream of the Emperor

Maxen” (pp. 65-115), and accompanying notes; (HS): TBA

WEEKS 6-8: The Forms and Functions of Folktales and Other Traditional Storytelling Genres

W 2/12: Bed-Time Stories or Survival Manuals? Making Sense of “Little Red Riding Hood”

(GK) Reading: Perrault, Grimm, “Little Red Riding Hood” (w); Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of

Enchantment , pp. 166-83 (w); Robert Darnton, “Peasants Tell Tales” from The Great Cat

Massacre and Other Episodes from French Cultural History (w); Mary Douglas, “ChildrenConsumed and Child Cannibals” (w)

M 2/17: Holiday (Presidents’ Day)

W 2/19: Rumors and Contemporary Legends (Patricia Turner, Guest Lecturer) Reading: Turner, “Ambivalent Patrons” (w); browsing in “Snopes” website (w)

M 2/24: TBA (EH); TBA (JN) Reading: TBA

M 2/24: QUIZ 3 (covering readings, in-class screenings, and lectures from 2/5 to and

including 2/24)

Weeks 8-9: Myth—Still Pervasive and Persistent

The Romans Leaving Britain (Millais) Temptation of Percival (Hacker)



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W 2/26: “To a World of Gods and Monsters”: Myth and the Search for the Superman (GK) Reading: The Heroic Ideal, Chapter Nine, “Black Angels and New Men: Heroism in a

Totalitarian Context” (pp. 146-83)

The revision of the first paper is due on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, BY 4:45PM in the

English Department Office (Humanities 149) and on Turnitin by 11:59PM.

M 3/3: Persephone and Demeter Politicized: Feminism, Motherhood, and Poetry (LP); The“Success Story” (Chiara Bozzone, Guest Lecturer) Reading (LP): poems by Eavan Boland, Louise Glück, and Rita Dove (w); Lotta Lofgren,

"Partial Horror: Fragmentation and Healing in Rita Dove's Mother Love” (w); TBA

MONDAY 3/3, THIRD AND FINAL MYTH MOVIE NIGHT! 6PM, DE NEVE

AUDITORIUM

W 3/5: The Monkey King and His Mythical Journey to the West (LME); TBA (Katherine

McLoone, Guest Lecturer) Reading: TBA

WEEK 10:

M 3/10: In-Class Screening of Talking Trauma and discussion with filmmaker and guest

lecturer Timothy Tangherlini



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Reading: Labov, “Narratives of Personal Experience” (w); Tangherlini, "Heroes and Lies:

Storytelling Tactics Among Paramedics” (w)

W 3/12: GE 30 Finale (all)

W 3/12: QUIZ 4 (covering readings, in-class screenings, and lectures from 2/24 to and

including 3/10)

SECOND PAPER DUE 4:45 ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, IN HUMANITIES 149 AND

BY 11:59 PM ON TURNITIN

1. FIRST GE30B RESEARCH PAPER ASSIGNMENT (3-4 PAGES)—Choose one of thefollowing two paper topics (A or B).

A. Utilizing, building on, and adding to what you learned while researching for and writing your

papers in GE 30A, argue for a particular interpretation of the myth you worked with last quarter,in terms of its original cultural context. Whereas in the second paper last quarter you analyzed

the myth on its own narrative terms, this paper should present an interpretation from a more

contextual perspective. For example, some of the questions addressed might include (butcertainly are not limited to): would the myth have been considered a positive reinforcement of

or challenge to certain values, mores, or institutions? Or could it have constituted an implicit (or

explicit) warning against a certain choice, behavior, or social construct? Did it reflect or refract a

given aspect of its original socio-historical context, and what might such a depiction suggest?Historical, political, religious, and ritual factors are some of the considerations that may shape

your analysis. Note: IF you and your GSI agree that you already accomplished this interpretive

task in the second paper of Fall Quarter, you MUST now choose Option B (below).

OR

True and False Monkey King (2000 “Year of the

Monkey” Commemorative Golden Coin,

People’s Bank of China)



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B. Construct an argument as above, but use a folktale (OTHER than “Little Red Riding Hood”

or its equivalent) instead of your myth from last quarter. Work with and do research on a storyfrom one of the following “classic” folktale collections: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s Household

Tales, Charles Perrault’s Tales of Mother Goose/Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs’s English Fairy

Tales or any of his other collections, Jeremiah Curtin’s Myths and Folklore of Ireland ,Giambattista Basile’s Pentamerone, all available in translation on the “SurLaLune” website (see

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms.html#CONTENTS); or a primary-source

folktale text from http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html, or from another folktale source,

subject to prior approval from your GSI. If you choose this option for your first paper, please

read ahead of time the assignments for 2/12, and be sure that they are reflected in your

paper. More “role-modelling” for this option is available from among the uploaded suggested

readings on our website for Week 6.

Due dates: FRIDAY, FEB. 7, BY 4:45PM in the English Department Office (Humanities

149) and on Turnitin by 11:59PM; (revision) FRIDAY, FEB. 28, by 4:45PM in the English

Department Office (Humanities 149) and on Turnitin by 11:59PM

2. SECOND GE30B RESEARCH PAPER ASSIGNMENT (5-6 PAGES)Please find one or two multiforms of the myth with which you already worked last quarter. The

second/third story and text may come from a different primary source, different genre, differentera, and different context from where you found your first story and text last quarter. The new

material may be a “variant multiform(s),” similar in most respects to the story on which youworked originally, or a “protean multiform(s),” on the surface different from, but on a deeper

level sharing common key narrative elements with your original story—elements such as tale

types or motifs, Proppian sequences of functions, or thematic structures. Briefly provide ahistorical/social/cultural background for the multiform(s) in order to establish context. Then

identify the crucial similarities/differences among the two or three multiforms (including youroriginal myth), and derive, present, and defend an interpretative argument based on consideration

of those similarities and/or differences.

Note: The second paper will not include a revision. It is your chance to display all of the

writing skills you have honed through your work on the first three papers.

Due date: 4:45 ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, IN HUMANITIES 149 AND BY 11:59 PM

ON TURNITIN

Note: Late work (including essays and section assignments) will be subject to penalties,

including but not limited to the deduction of 1/3 of a grade for each day the assignment is late.

QUIZZES (January 22, February 5 and 24, March 12)

A serious commitment to reading is essential to broadening and strengthening the mind. Haveall assigned readings completed before you come to class. You will take FOUR in-class quizzes,

the dates of which are listed in the weekly timetable and below. Quizzes will test on both thelectures and the required readings—including the readings assigned for the dates on which thequizzes will be given. Quizzes missed for any reason cannot be made up. However, at the end of

the quarter, your lowest quiz grade will be dropped. The final quiz will include a question

about the “Myth Movie Night” films (see below).



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Graded Assignment Distributions Essay #1 = 25% (first version—10%, revised essay—15%)Essay #2 = 25%

Reading Quizzes = 30%

Section Participation = 20%

Myth Movie Nights at 6pm, De Neve Auditorium (January 14, February 5, March 3)

Films form an important part of the course’s database, and attending our three scheduled MYTH

MOVIE NIGHTS this quarter is an important part of your coursework. Each Myth Movie Night(6-9pm in the De Neve Auditorium; dates are in the schedule above) features a screening

preceded by an introduction given by a member of our teaching team, and followed by

discussion. Before each MMN, members of the team will be having dinner in the De NeveCafeteria, where we’d be delighted to have you join us!

http://www.mythsj.com/




ge 30b syllabus

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