The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Instructor Resources
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth is intended as a key resource for those Higher
Education students that are taking modules with a focus on theories of mythology. The Reader has been designed to collect together, in one portable and easy to access place, those resources that (over our 10 years of delivering modules that explore the study of myth) students have reported they found most useful. It is our belief that students benefit greatly from actually reading the writings of core theorists, which are all too often misrepresented in the standard glosses that make up the history of approaches. The readings have however been presented in an abridged format and with an introductory piece of framing writing in the belief that these measures will encourage undergraduate engagement with these important source materials. It is true that all the readings in the Reader present a degree of challenge to the undergraduate student; however none are beyond their comprehension, especially with the help of a supportive learning environment and instructor. It is the intent of this ever developing resource to provide support for instructors who feel that they would benefit from such, we would also like to open this material to comments, addition and amendments from instructors, as a way of further sharing aspects of good practice.
The Reader has been constructed with a certain degree of flow and readings have been both categorised by topic and arranged in an order that we have found useful for introducing students to the academic exploration of mythology. The following outline presumes that three of the short readings will be completed before each class and that the classes will follow the order of the reader.
However, variations on this process are possible. For example, if instructors judge that the ability of their students and the time that they have available would be better served by spending two weeks on one section, or even three weeks on one section (giving a student work load of one reading per
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
week) then the book can be used in this way, with the only real negative impact being the amount of timetabled weeks needed to cover all the material in the book. However, each reading can stand on its own, and, while the various sections speak to each other, it is not necessary to cover every section, or even every reading in any given section, to achieve development of understanding. Finally, it is worth noting that the order of the readings is deliberate and there is an assumption in the material below that certain understandings developed by engagement with earlier sections of the book are brought to the analysis of the later texts. However, with some modification, it is possible to read the texts in a different order to that presented in the book and even to jump sections of the book entirely if the instructor deems this necessary.
Session 1: Introducing Mythology
Students come to the first class with different ideas and expectations about what a module exploring theories of mythology will cover. This session can be used to establish a base line of comprehension through the sharing of individual understandings of what myth is and what it can do. These ideas can be worked into a collective, initial class definition of mythology that can be returned to throughout the programme to explore how understandings have been transformed by engagement with the course materials. It may also be useful at this point to introduce the concepts of folklore and legend as a way of gauging the class’s initial response to these (id est as potentially distinct, or overlapping, categories to myth). In order to make this more concrete, it is useful to ask members of the class for an example of something that they feel is myth and then test that understanding against the definition that has been developed – the instructor here may want to try to provoke debate
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
by introducing material that would stretch the definition of mythology that the students have developed. At the end of the class you should introduce the scope and flow of the module and set the first group of required readings.
Session 2: Locating the Field
This session provides the students with the first opportunity to integrate their own implicit definitions and understandings of mythology with those of three highly influential figures in the development of the academic understanding of mythology. By the end of the session students should have developed an understanding of three relatively straightforward typologies. They should be confident in their ability to assess these definitions against familiar myths and common-sense conceptions, as well as being able to talk intelligently about the similarities and differences in the three author’s definitions of myth. Students should also be encouraged to think about the consequences of the various definitions for the analysis of mythology.
Core Texts in the Reader
1) A Two-Dimensional Scheme for the Classification of Narratives
C. Scott Littleton
2) The Idea of Folklore
Daniel Ben Amos
3) Myth in Primitive Society
Bronislaw Malinowski
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Sample Class Questions/Debates
• What differences and similarities do you detect between your own understanding of mythology and these approaches?
How does Malinowski’s definition of myth differ from that of Littleton?
• Do these definitions force the inclusion of material that you are uncomfortable with viewing as myth? And why?
Do these definitions exclude anything from the category of myth that you would want to be there?
Sample Further Print Resources
Bascom, W. (1953) “Folklore and Anthropology,” Journal of American Folk-Lore 66: 283-290 Dégh, L. (2001) Legend and Belief: dialectics of a folklore genre. Indiana University Press . Honko, L. (1972) “The Problems of Defining Myth,” Scripta Instituti Donneriana 6. Dundes, A. (1980) Interpreting Folklore. Indiana University Press. Kerenyi, K (1969) “Prolegomena” in Jung and Kerenyi (eds), Essays on a science of mythology: the myth of the divine child and the mysterious of Eleusis. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. Kirk, G.S. (1973) “On Defining Myths,” A Journal for Ancient Philosophy 1: 61-69. Lincoln, B. (1999) Theorizing Myth: narrative, ideology and scholarship. Chicago University Press. Segal, R. (2004) Myth: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford Uni Press
Online Resources
Video Resource: a light hearted yet informative song about Malinowski’s theories by the Famous Dead Germans with a video that contains several fieldwork photographs of Malinowski. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eB4BveCsII
Brief online presentation of a typology for Myth, Folktale and Legend. https://www.thoughtco.com/defining-terms-myth-folklore-legend-735039
As above, but aimed specifically at teachers. http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/info311-what-are-myths-legends-and-folktales.html
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Video Resource: a documentary about Malinowski. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f22VsAlOwbc
Video Resource: Scott Littleton talking on Paranormal TV. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8senl
Session 3: Global Theories of Myth
This is a rich session that moves the focus from simply trying to define mythology to that of exploring the apparent similarity of the content of so many myths and the consequence of this for our understanding. The session pairs well with class ten and instructors may wish to skip straight to class ten after this session, or introduce some of the material from class ten here. We have found however that the discussion of mythology in the modern world works better when it is informed by a greater range of engagement with distinct theories of myth. For that reason, we introduce this material here and recommend making only brief allusions to its relevance for contemporary understandings of myth. The session also benefits from its close proximity to session four, which presents the opportunity to develop and further explore many of the core issues that are first raised here.
Instructors may need to foreground the Rank reading with a brief overview of the core concepts of
Freudian analysis. Freud will still be a familiar name to many students and many will have an implicit understanding of key ideas. However it has to be remembered that contemporary students may be less aware of Freud’s core concepts than is readily assumed and without this understanding both the
Rank and the Campbell readings could prove challenging.
It is perhaps worth underscoring that the Campbell reading we have chosen to include in the
Reader is not his clearest outline of his famous Hero’s Journey. This is readily available online (as well as several variants of the journey) and the materials listed below can be used to point students towards that outline. However, we would encourage students to also engage directly with the reading
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth we have chosen for the Reader, which covers the broader scope of Campbell’s Monomyth theory, at the same time as presenting the essence of Campbell’s argument for the origins of myth and its inherent value.
By the end of the session students should be familiar with these classical attempts to solve the mystery of the seeming similarity of widely dispersed mythology. Through discussion the students should have developed a critical approach to these theories and be aware of the dangers of the theories, as well as, of course, their seductive tendencies. Students should also be able to discuss in an informed way the potential relationship between myth and ritual and have begun to understand the arguments for the link between mythology and personal psychology.
Core Texts in the Reader
1) Balder and the Mistletoe
James Frazer
2) The Myth of the Birth of the Hero
Otto Rank
3) The Historical Development of Mythology
Joseph Campbell
Sample Class Questions/Debates
How would you characterise the points of contact and departure of these three approaches?
Why, in Rank’s analysis, is so called ‘primitive’ myth related to children and the insane? How do you feel about this connection?
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Where would these theorists locate the origin of mythology?
To what extent can these forms of myth analysis be said to be acts of myth creation?
Sample Further Print Resources
Arlow, J. A. (1961). Ego psychology and the study of mythology. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 9(3), 371-393. Campbell, J. (1949) The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, N.J: Princeton Uni Press Freud, S. (2013). The interpretation of dreams. Read Books Ltd. Segal, R. A. (1980). The Myth-Ritualist Theory of Religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 173-185. Smith, J. Z. (1973). When the bough breaks. History of Religions, 12(4), 342-371. Tylor, E., B. (1871. Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom.. In Two Volumes. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. Willerslev, R. (2011). Frazer strikes back from the armchair: a new search for the animist soul. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 17(3), 504-526.
Online Resources
A webpage with several videos about the Hero’s journey from both Rank and Campbell’s perspective, including Pat Solomon’s Tedex talk. https://amazingthought.net/in-quest-of-the-hero/
The Joseph Campbell Foundation has a wide range of online resources relating to his work, including audio and video of Joseph Campbell. https://www.jcf.org/
A website, with illustrations, that relates Otto Rank’s theory to comic books. http://www.powerofcomics.com/myth
Video Resource: Professor Alan McFarland gives a fascinating insight into Frazer’s Indexing books and how they shaped his myth analysis technique. http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/FILES/frazer.htm
Turner’s Golden Bough on the Tate website, with curator’s notes. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-golden-bough-n00371
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Session 4: Myths and Dreams
This session allows for a continuation of the concerns of the previous meeting, once again a core grasp of Freud’s theory is essential and both the articles by Dundes and Jung develop and apply this in their own way. If instructors have either decided against introducing core Freudian theory in
Session three, or simply skipped that session then they will need to strongly consider foregrounding this session with a discussion of Freud’s core concepts. If however a discussion of Freud has been previously carried out then this session will provide the opportunity to notice several key Freudian techniques in operation. Placing Dundes and Jung’s articles in conversation with each other provides the opportunity to tease out the differences (and similarities) of their approach to contemporary phenomena, which students will find familiar. As such it provides a good forum for the interrogation of these ideas and the development of the understanding of mythology.
Instructors may decide to focus entirely on the Dundes and Jung articles in this session and through these adequately develop a sense of the way that information drawn from myth and dreams has been related to our existence in the world. However, instructors with more time, or ambition, would benefit greatly from adding Sepie’s article to this mix. The Sepie article represents a change to the somewhat comfortable appraisal of mythology as other people’s symbolic truth, instead challenging us to take information drawn from myth and dreams as a serious source of value about life in the world. Students may find this concept particularly challenging, but it is also potentially a highly rewarding debate to open, which can also be both understood in relation to the readings in section one and those of later sections.
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
By the end of the session students should have, as a minimum, developed their understanding of Freudian and Jungian approaches to myth, the relation of myths to dreams and the symbolic interpretation of mythology; they will have also begun to think about the range of material that can be classed as myth and its relation to their own lives. More advanced classes (and those that spread this material over multiple sessions) should achieve a complex understanding of the ethics of working with other people’s mythology and the challenges that viewing other people’s myths as true can present for our understanding of the world.
Core Texts in the Reader
1) Flying Saucers: a modern myth
Carl Gustav Jung
2) The Vampire as a Blood Thirsty Revenant
Alan Dundes
3) More than Stories, More than Myth
Amba Sepie
Sample Class Questions/Debates
How does Jung’s approach to myth relate to, or differ from, the approaches of Campbell,
Dundes and Rank?
Why is Sepie’s approach so challenging for the symbolic theorists?
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Can vampire literature and UFOs be usefully understood as mythology? What does this
understanding provide?
In what ways does the receipt of a myth connect people?
Sample Further Print Resources
Arlow, J. A. (1961). Ego psychology and the study of mythology. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 9(3), 371-393. Carroll, M.P (1979) A New Look at Freud on Myth: reanalysing the star husband, Ethos 7, no. 3. Freud, S. (2013). The interpretation of dreams. Read Books Ltd. Hallowell, A.I (1960) Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior and World View, in Culture in History: essays in honor of Paul Radin, ed. Stanley Diamond. Columbia University Press. Jung, C. G. (1998). Jung on mythology. Princeton University Press. Jung, C. G ( 2002). The Psychology of the Child Archetype, in Jung, C. G., & Kerényi, K. (eds). Science of Mythology: Essays on the Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis. London: Routledge. Pp 83-116. Segal, R. A. (2003). Jung's very twentieth‐century view of myth. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 48(5), 593-617. Taussig, M. (2010). The corn-wolf: Writing apotropaic texts. Critical Inquiry, 37(1), 26-33.
Online Resources
Video Resource: interview of Jung, with clear audio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AMu-G51yTY
Online Resource about Bawaka, with images and quotes: http://theconversation.com/welcome-to-my-country-seeing-the-true-beauty-of-life-in- bawaka-31378
Video ResourceL Editable video of Alan Dundes. https://www.c-span.org/video/?72361-1/folklore-modern-world
Audio, with images, of Alan Watts, discussing Jung: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr_20uEVOiE
Session 5: Myth and History
It is tempting to see this session as an optional revision of theories that were once popular but have now largely fallen out of fashion. However, the topic is of immense interest to contemporary https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth students and many of them will have been drawn to the study of mythology by the allure of lost histories. One potential way therefore to engage with this material is to begin with an exploration of some of the more popular discussions of myth and history as a way of drawing out both implicit and academic definitions of the terms. Once the class has a sense of the terms that it is comfortable with then an exploration of the relationship between the two can be approached. Here more popular video clips (see below), or magazine articles could be placed alongside Muller and Eliade as a way of engaging these classical texts with ongoing popular use of the concepts.
It is increasingly vital in these politically turbulent times that students understand the problematic relationship between myth and history and the potential for myth to be harnessed to a political agenda. Recent years have seen a rise in the online (re)development of Aryan theories in both
Europe and India, albeit in slightly different ways. To be able to critically engage with the core texts and controversies surrounding the relationship of myth to history is therefore a core skill for good global citizenship in the contemporary world. The politically charged nature of this session means that it is potentially one of the more demanding sessions for instructors to host. Instructors will want to carefully assess the values of creating a safe space for discussion, alongside those for drawing the argument out. Each instructor will know their own class best, as well as the limits of their own comfort zone and it is therefore our opinion that the final decision on how to best tackle these issues is dealt with on a case by case basis. It is suggested however that instructors point the students towards the editors’ introduction to this section where we have tried to carefully frame the material that follows in a way that both does justice to its value and problematises easy associations between language, myth and race. By the end of the session students should be familiar with the Indo-European hypothesis and be able to critically discuss both its linguistic roots and its extension to mythology; they will be comfortable using the terms ‘myth and ‘history’ and will be able to talk critically about the relationship of myth to history, while demonstrating an awareness of the implicit bias that underlies popular discussions.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Core Texts in the Reader
1) Myth and Reality
Mercia Eliade
2) The Original Elements of Mythology
Max Muller
3) Cú Chulainn's Women and some Indo-European Comparisons
Nicholas Allen
Sample Class Questions/Debates
What distinguishes myth from history?
Why has the Indian government given priority funding to research the history that lies
behind mythology?
Why might some be upset with the idea that the Bible is Mythology?
What does it mean to say that myth is always an act of creation of one sort or another?
Sample Further Print Resources
Allen, D. (1988). Eliade and history. The Journal of religion, 68(4), 545-565. Back, L. (2002). Aryans reading Adorno: cyber-culture and twenty-firstcentury racism. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 25(4), 628-651 Dumézil, G. (1988). The destiny of a king. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hancock, G. (2012). Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization. Three Rivers Press. Holm, J., & Bowker, J. (1994). Myth and history. London: Pinter Publishers. Kinsella, T. (1969). The Tain. White Plains, NY: Irish University Press.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
MacCana, P. (1997). Celtic mythology. London: Chancellor. Rennie, B. S. (2006). Mircea Eliade: A critical reader. London: Equinox.
Online Resources
Discussion of the Myth/History debate in India https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/india-modi-culture/
Mircea Eliade, Maitreyi Devi interview (Bengal nights) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rP9BkWOpA0
An Indo-European Wiki https://indo-european.info/ie/Indo-European
BBC article on the politics of mythology https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-41757047
Session 6: Structuralism
Structuralism is presented by Lévi-Strauss as a reaction to the tangle of approaches that preceded it and this means that this session provides an opportunity to reflect on the theories that have been covered up to this point. An understanding of the theories that preceded structuralism also helps to provide an important contextualisation of the excitement and fervour that accompanied the initial spread of Structuralism. Instructors with less time to devote to this topic may wish to focus on the chapters by Leach and Lévi-Strauss. These are closely aligned, although distinct, in approach and together serve to introduce students to the form of Structuralism that has had the greatest impact on studies of mythology within the dominant academic and popular discourse.
The extracts that have been chosen for the Reader are strong demonstrations of the
Structuralist technique in application, rather than abstract theoretical discussion. As such they should
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth capture the imagination of students but may require that the instructor engages in careful preparation and interpretation to enable the students to engage effectively with the material. The editors have provided an outline of the key processes and armature of Structuralist analysis in the introduction to this section and this could be both highlighted and further augmented by instructors, preparing the students to engage with the texts. Similarly, we have used the introduction to Lévi-Strauss’s piece to provide a sketch of the relevant mythology and culture, which should serve as a basis for further reading in this area. It is therefore strongly recommended that students explore the surrounding mythology and culture prior to engaging with the analysis to fully appreciate the level of interpretation that is being applied to the material. By the end of the session students should be familiar with the basic practise of a structural analysis of mythology. They should be equipped to both differentiate different types of structuralist analysis and the relation of these collective approaches to other theories of myth.
Core Texts in the Reader
1) Jewels and Wounds
Claude Lévi-Strauss
2) Pulleyar and the Lord Buddha
Edmund Leach
3) An Outline of Propp’s Model for the Study of Wondertales
Manuel Aguirre
Sample Class Questions/Debates
Is Leach’s analysis distinct to that of Lévi-Strauss?
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Is Structuralism simply a way of reading the text?
Is the label Structuralism useful as a way of collecting together these three approaches?
How does Structuralism relate to (and differ from) the other approaches that we have encountered in the Reader?
Sample Further Print Resources
Barthes, R. (1975) “An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives,” New Literary History, 6, no. 2: 237-272 Leach, E. and Aycock, A. (1983) Structuralist Interpretations of Biblical Myth. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Lévi-Strauss, C. (1963) “The Structural Study of Myth,” in Structural Anthropology, Vol. 1, trans. C. Jacobson and B.G. Schoepf. Basic Books. 206-231. Lévi-Strauss, C. (1973) “4 Winnebago Myths,” Structural Anthropology, Vol. 2, trans. M. Layton. Penguin Books, 198-210. Propp, V. J. (1994). Morphology of the folktale. Austin: University of Texas Press. Segal, R. A. (1996). Structuralism in myth: Lévi-Strauss, Barthes, Dumézil, and Propp. New York: Garland. Thompson, M. T., & Egesdal, S. M. (2008). Salish myths and legends: One people's stories. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Wilkins, W. J. (1882). Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Purānic. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink.
Online Resources
Video Resource: interview with Edmund Leach. http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/Leach.html
BBC podcast about Lévi-Strauss. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01sjjxl
Useful diagram, comparing Propp and Campbell. https://storyality.wordpress.com/2017/07/30/storyality-145-five-views-of-the-mono- myth/campbell-1949-seen-as-parts-of-propp-1928/#main
Official Salish website. http://www.csktribes.org/
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The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Session 7: Neostructuralism
This session provides both the opportunity to continue the conversation about Structuralism and to assess its lasting contribution. Instructors with little time may wish to focus purely on Mary
Douglas’ balanced assessment of Structuralism, which provides opportunities to debate in class the allure and dangers of this approach. Those with more time will benefit from exploring both Kunin’ s general assessment of the challenge of developing a neo-Structuralist approach and Hugh-Jones’ more focussed contribution to the debate. This session can act to both complicate the student’s understanding of structuralism and demystify, through a series of concrete reflections on its value as a tool for the interpretation of ethnographic data. By the end of the session students will be able to assess the lasting impact of structuralism and it value as tool for the contemporary analysis of mythology.
Core Texts in the Reader
1) We Think What We Eat
Seth Kunin
2) The Gun and the Bow
Stephen Hugh-Jones
3) The Meaning of Myth
Mary Douglas
Sample Class Questions/Debates
What does it mean to suggest that we live in a ‘hot’ culture? https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Does (neo)structuralism allow for freewill?
How does myth respond to social change?
Is the structuralist analysis of mythology a science or an art?
Sample Further Print Resources
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice, Cambridge: Polity. Douglas, M. (2003). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. Routledge. Frank, M. (2001). Was ist Neostrukturalismus?. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Hugh-Jones, C. (1979). From the Milk River: spatial and temporal processes in Northwest Amazonia. Cambridge University Press. Hugh-Jones, S. (1979) The Palm and the Pleiades: initiation and cosmology in northwest Amazonia. Cambridge University Press. Karner, C. (2006). The thought world of Hindu nationalism: Analyzing a political ideology. Lewistown, N.Y: Mellen. Kunin, S. (2009) The Allegory of the Olive Tree: a case study for (neo) structuralist analysis, Religion 33, no. 2: 105-125 Miles-Watson, J. (2009) Structuralism: a key methodology for the New Millennium?, Man in India 89, no. 1-2: 67-80. Miles-Watson, J. (2009). Welsh Mythology: A Neostructuralist Analysis. NY: Cambria Press. Mosko, M. (1985) Quadripartite structure: categories, relations and homologies in Bush Mekeo culture. Cambridge University Press.
Online Resources
Video Resource: interview with Stephen Hugh-Jones http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/hugh-jones.htm
Online deposit of a postgraduate thesis exploring neostructuralism http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11305/
Video Resource: interview with Mary Douglas http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/douglas.htm
Interview with Seth Kunin https://cup.columbia.edu/author-interviews/kunin-juggling-identities https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Session 8: Spatial Theories
Students who are not familiar with the general literature surrounding the spatial turn may benefit from a primer on the key aspects of that thought before engaging directly with these texts.
The instructor may choose to do this through their own mini-presentation on the topic, or the distribution of a written resource such as Knott’s (2010) overview. However, this session also presents a useful opportunity to reflect on the centrality of space/place to many established understandings of mythology, including those that have preceded this section in the reader. Students may also find it helpful if either during, or before the discussion of these texts time is spent considering the interrelated terms of ‘space’, ‘place’ and ‘landscape’; the different emphasis that different approaches place upon each of these and the consequences of it for our understanding of mythology. By the end of the session students should have begun to think spatially about mythology, they should be aware of the space/time debates and the role that myth has to play in the making of people’s homes within the world.
Core Texts in the Reader
1) Myth Memory and the Oral Tradition
Frances Harwood
2) Implicit Mythology in the Shimla Hills
Jonathan Miles-Watson
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
3) Stone-Faced Ancestors: The Spatial Anchoring of Myth in Wamira
Miriam Khan
Sample Class Questions/Debates
Is myth a form of escapism, or a source of worlding?
Can myth act as a coping mechanism for environmental change?
Do you agree that mythography has privileged time over space?
What is the difference between the analyst’s spatial reading of a myth and the narrators use of space in a myth?
Sample Further Print Resources
Arias, S., & Warf, B. (2009). The spatial turn: Interdisciplinary perspectives. London: Routledge. Basśo, K. H. (2010). Wisdom sits in places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press. Erdész, S. (1961) ‘The World Conception of Lajos Ámi, Storyteller’. Acta Ethnographica 10: 1– 4. Hugh-Jones, C. (1979) From the Milk River: spatial and temporal processes in northwest Amazonia. Cambridge University Press. Knott, K. (2010). Religion, space, and place: The spatial turn in research on religion. Religion and Society, 1(1), 29-43. Kunin, S. D. (1998). God’s Place in the World. Sacred Space and sacred Place in Judaism. Cassell. London and New York. Kunin, S. D. (2012).’Structuralism and Implicit Mythology’. Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society, 37(4). Onnudotir, H. (2014) “The workings of monsters: of monsters and humans in Icelandic society,” in Monster Anthropology in Australasia and beyond, ed. Yasmine Musharbash and Geir Henning Presterdstuen. Palgrave Macmillan. Soja, E. W. (1989). Postmodern geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory. London: Verso.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Online Resources
Geographical context for the Miles-Watson article. https://blog.americananthro.org/2011/03/14/places-in-search-of-a-purpose-colonial- cathedrals-in-postcolonial-india/
Map of sites of Irish mythology. http://www.emeraldisle.ie/map
Maps of mermaid mythology. https://mermaidisles.com/map-of-medieval-mermaids-in-the-british-isles/
Modern mythology tours. https://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/visiting/see-and-do/land-of-myths-and-legends
Session 9: Myth and Popular Culture
This session is usually well-received and requires little foregrounding, provided that the popular culture refences that the session leader employs are up-to-date. The readings that we have chosen to include here all relate to current phenomenon and the majority of students will find the topics of discussion instantly familiar (Disney Princesses, Science Fiction and Fan Fiction). It is possible to detect, in the material discussing these issues, several of the theories that are covered in earlier sections of the Reader at play. Students should be both encouraged to detect these theories and critically assess the way that they may have shaped the author’s understanding of the relationship between mythology and popular culture. This session also presents a good opportunity for students to extend the theories that they have covered in other sections to their own favourite aspects of popular culture and through this explore the applicability of each to the other, using the arena as a sort of proving ground. This in turn should lead to important questions about the nature of mythology in the world today and its relationship to forms of storytelling that are (at the time of writing) globally dominant. As such, the session creates a bridge between the material that proceeds it and the material that will follow.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Core Texts in the Reader
1) Amateur Mythographies
Ika Willis
2) Storm Power, an Icy Tower and Elsa’s Bower
Lauren Dundes, Madeline Streiff and Zachary Streiff
3) Science Fiction as Mythology
Marilyn Sutton and Thomas Sutton
Sample Class Questions/Debates
What theories of mythology lend themselves most to viewing the products of popular culture as mythology?
Is popular mythology the property of important individuals or key collectives?
How might modern technology impact the relationship of popular culture to mythology?
Are the myths of modern media liberating or repressive?
Sample Further Print Resources
Blank, T. (2009) Folklore and the Internet: vernacular expression in a digital world. Utah University Press. Chance, J. (2004) Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: a reader. University Press of Kentucky. Do Rozario, R. A. C. (2004). The princess and the magic kingdom: Beyond nostalgia, the function of the Disney princess. Women's studies in communication, 27(1), 34-59. Fiske, J. (2010). Understanding popular culture. London: Routledge. Greene, E. (1998). Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture. Wesleyan University Press.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Grimes, M.K (2002) Harry Potter: fairy tale prince, real boy, and archetypal hero, in The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: perspectives on a literary phenomenon, ed. Lana A. Whited. University of Missouri Press. Landsman, G. (1972). Science Fiction: The Rebirth of Mythology. The Journal of Popular Culture, 4, 989-997. Laylock, J. (2010) Myth sells: Mattel’s Commission of the Masters of the Universe Bible, Journal for Religion and Popular Culture ,22:2.
Online Resources
Interactive website of the film Frozen. https://frozen.disney.com/
Useful science fiction resource maintained by the University of Pittsburgh. https://pitt.libguides.com/scifi/intro
Well maintained website and regular podcast about religion and popular culture. http://god-mode.org/about/
An Important mythology Fanfiction archive. https://www.fanfiction.net/misc/Mythology/
Session 10: The Future of Mythology
This speculative session usually provides a robust and sustained debate with very little in the way of dead seminar syndrome. The chief challenge presented to the instructor is that of ensuring that the range of the debate is covered, avoiding the discussion becoming narrowed too, with only the capacity to draw on limited concepts of either the future, or mythology. The session will also act as a natural springboard to the final meetings of the semester by providing the opportunity to revisit earlier definitions and understandings of mythology. This of course is in part the tack that the Segal chapter in the Reader takes, but instructors would do well to encourage students to engage with theories beyond those that Segal is able to cover (in this short chapter) at the same time as complicating the debate to incorporate non-western and non-authorised understandings of the role that myth has to play in the modern world. Those with more than one session may wish to devote a
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth second meeting to discussing the way that certain types of mythology, or lack thereof, may shape the future and in so doing move beyond the more fundamental discussion of if mythology has a future.
Core Texts in the Reader
1) Mythological Terminalia
Jonathan Miles-Watson & Vivian Asimos
2) Does Myth have a Future?
Robert Segal
Sample Class Questions/Debates
Are we entering a global post-mythological age? Is the West living in the afterglow of a living system of mythology? How might an ethnocentric lens be shaping our understanding of the future of mythology? What dangers and opportunities are posed by the future of mythology?
Sample Further Print Resources
Campbell, J. (2011). Myths to live by. Joseph Campbell Foundation. Cousineau, P. (2003). Once and future myths: The power of ancient stories in our lives. Conari Press. Lévi-Strauss, C. (1983) How Myths Die, in Structural Anthropology, vol. 2, trans. Monique Layton, University of Chicago Press, 256-268. Mosco, V. (2005). The digital sublime: Myth, power, and cyberspace. Mit Press. Murphy, P. D. (1994). My Mother's Name is Evelyn, Not Gaia. American Nature Writing Newsletter, 6 (1): 12-13. Segal, R. A. (2008). Bringing myth back to the world: the future of myth in Jungian psychology. In Dreaming the Myth Onwards (pp. 107-122). Routledge. Smith, A. D. (1999). Myths and Memories of the Nation . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Smith, A. D. (1988). The myth of the ‘Modern Nation’and the myths of nations. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 11(1), 1-26. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019
The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth
Online Resources
Podcast of a debate about the future of mythology at the Rubin, NYC.
https://soundcloud.com/rubinmuseum/2018-06-13-mimimondal-ganesh
Video Resource: science fiction as the future of mythology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W3jRx8hRz0
Video Resource: discussion of future mythology at Portland State University.
https://www.pdx.edu/impactentrepreneurs/elevating-impact-2017
Newspaper article about the role of mythology in British Politics.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/18/england-eu-referendum-brexit
Session 11+12: Revision / Feedback / Tests
This session offers the opportunity to look back over the material that has been covered, tie up loose ends and prepare for any planned examinations. In my own module this represents a half way point, at which we can both reflect on what has gone before and begin to plan for the second half of the module, where students are encouraged to either individually, or in groups, work on applying the theories that we have covered in the first half, in personalised and novel ways. The session can also provide an opportunity to gather feedback from the students that can help to form future years of teaching and administer in-class, or spot tests, on the material that has been covered so far.
Depending on the time available and the structure of the module co-ordinators can use this time to close the study or bridge to further research/discussion.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-bloomsbury-reader-in-the-study-of-myth-9781350082250/ The Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Myth, Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019