World Literature with Mr.

Brennan: Unit 1

UNIT 1:
Mythology: Creation Stories and Modern Theory
U N I T O V E R V I E W


Primary Assessment: In a minimum of 750 words, analyze and evaluate one or more creation story, and one of more modern theory.


Essential Questions for Class Discussion:

1. What is the meaning of myth? In what ways can a myth be true or untrue?

2. How do we evaluate myth? Are some sacred stories more true than others? Why? How? What are the implications?

3. What is the function of myth? What has it done, what should it do, for the individual, and for a community?

4. How do we analyze myth? What happens to myth under the lens of modern theories?
What does each discipline (sociology, psychology/Freudian, political/Marxism, gender/Feminism) reveal about myth?

5. What is comparative mythology? What do these myths have in common?
What is the source of the pattern? What are the implications to your answers?

6. What do these theories have in common? What is the source of the pattern? What do these narratives say about their culture and age?

7. Analyze the style and structure of myth, and theory. What devices do they use to tell their stories?
Describe the voice in which they speak, and their construction of authority.

8. How do these earliest narrative forms reveal subtexts of shifting schema, of patriarchy overtaking matriarchy, of order fighting
chaos, of agrarian civilization overtaking hunter-gatherer tribes, of monotheism overtaking polytheism?

Unit Literature
Year Author Text Genre Pages
c. 1900-1000 BCE anonymous Enuma Elish (Ancient Mesopotamia) Mythology: Creation Story 5
1890 James George Frazer The Golden Bough Non-Fiction: Modern Theory 2.5
c. 725 BCE Hesiod Theogony (Ancient Greece) Mythology: Creation Story 5
1909 Otto Rank The Myth of the Birth of the Hero Non-Fiction: Modern Theory 2
1934 C. G. Jung The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious Non-Fiction: Modern Theory 1.5
1936 C. G. Jung The Concept of the Collective Unconscious Non-Fiction: Modern Theory 0.5
c. 950-450 BCE Moses Genesis (Judeo-Christian) Mythology: Creation Story 5
1912 Emile Durkheim The Elementary Forms of Religious Life Non-Fiction: Modern Theory 3
c. 720 anonymous The Nihongi (Japanese Shinto) Mythology: Creation Story 3.5
1844 Karl Marx A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel Non-Fiction: Modern Theory 0.5
c. 1948 F. A. Ridley Socialism and Religion Non-Fiction: Modern Theory 5
c. 900-1100 anonymous Vlusp (Norse/Scandinavian) Mythology: Creation Story 2.5
1982 Marta Weigle Women and Mythology Non-Fiction: Modern Theory 3

World Literature with Mr. Brennan: Unit 1
KEY TERMS

Modernism: a cultural movement during the late 19
th
and early
20
th
centuries whose aim was to break with classical and
traditional forms. The movement focused primarily on the
conflicts between and within the Self and society; searched
for the Real, the undercurrent, the process and patterns.

Polytheistic: the belief in two or more gods

Monotheistic: the belief that there is only one God

Patriarchy: a system of society or government in which men
hold the power and women are largely excluded from it

Matriarchy: a system of society or government in which women
hold the power and men are largely excluded from it

Axis Mundi: or world axis, is the world center or the connection
between Heaven and Earth.

Hierarchy: a system or organization in which people or groups are
ranked one above the other according to status or authority

Hubris: excessive pride, especially toward or defiance of the gods.

Psyche: the human mind, which Freud believed consisted of the:

* superego: which reflects the internalization of cultural rules

* ego: which mediates between the id and superego

* id: which is driven by instinctive (often sexual) impulses



ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES and CRITICAL THEORY

Psychology: the study of consciousness and he human mind,
specifically as a function of awareness, feeling, or motivation

Anthropology: the study of humans, their origins, physical and
cultural development, biological characteristics, and social
customs and beliefs

Sociology: study of social behavior, its origins, development,
organization, and institutions.

Cosmology: study of the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe.

* * *

Psychoanalytic literary criticism, argues that literary texts, like
dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of
the author, and manifest the author's own neuroses.

Marxist literary criticism, applies the theory of Karl Marx by
analyzing the role of class, class relations, as well as social
conflict, and oppression

Feminist literary criticism, exposes how literature reflects
masculine ideology; examines gender politics and traces the
subtle construction of masculinity and femininity, and their
relative status, positionings, and marginalizations..

Archetypal literary criticism, argues that archetypes determine the
form and function of literary works, that a text's meaning is
shaped by cultural and psychological myths.
LITERARY TERMS

Allusion: a reference designed to call something to mind without
mentioning it explicitly

Antagonistany force that is in opposition to the main character, or
protagonist. (e.g. Tybalt is antagonist to Romeo in Romeo and Juliet)

Archetyperecurrent patterns of action, character types, themes or
images which are identifiable in a wide range of literature; for
instance, the femme fatale, that female character who is found
throughout literature as the one responsible for the downfall of a
significant male character.

Duality an instance of opposition or contrast between two
concepts or two aspects of something; a state of being divided

Euphemisma mild word of phrase which substitutes for another
which would be undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant, or
offensive. The word let go is a euphemism for the word fired.

Imagerybroadly defined, any sensory detail or evocation in a work;
more narrowly, the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling,
to call to mind an idea, or to describe an object. Basically, imagery
involves any or all of the five senses.

Metaphorone thing pictured as if it were something else, suggesting
a likeness or analogy between them. It is an comparison or
identification of one thing with another unlike itself without the
use of a verbal signal such as like or as. (e.g. Juliet is the sun.)

Personificationtreating an abstraction or nonhuman object as if it
were a person by endowing it with human qualities. (e.g. The tree
lifts her leafy arms to pray.)

Protagonistthe main character in a work, who may or may not be
heroic. (e.g. Macbeth in Macbeth)

Settingthe time and place of the action in a story, poem, or play.
(e.g. Star Wars opens in A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away)

Stylea distinctive manner of expression; each authors style is
expressed through word choice, tone, degree of formality,
figurative language, rhythm, grammar, structure, sentence length,
organization, and every other feature of a writers use of language.

Symbolisma person, place, thing, event, or pattern in a literary
work that figuratively represents or stands for something else.
(e.g. A rose may symbolize love.)