01:195:244:90 Introduction to Myth
Fall 2012
Instructor: Sergey Toymentsev setoymen@rci.rutgers.edu
Course meets online at the course website, which can be located at: www.ecollege.rutgers.edu
Virtual Office hours: by appointment
Course Description
In this course offered by Comparative Literature Department myth is understood as narratives passed down from ancient
times that continue to live in our consciousness. Such narratives represented in various genres (drama, epic, fairy tale,
legend, novel, and film) provide us with perfect materials to study human beings’ understanding of themselves and their
relationship with the external world. With such an understanding of myth in mind, we are going to read closely several
mythical texts from both Western and non-Western traditions, examine the relationship between these myths and human
psyche in the light of anthropology, sociology, narratology, and psychology, explore their influences on art, religion, and
philosophy, and study their roles in the development of human civilization in general.
SAS Requirements
1. This course satisfies the SAS writing requirement as a “writing-intensive course.” This course requires at least 15
pages or more of writing in English—including at least one sustained piece of analytical or interpretive prose—
and provides regular detailed feedback on writing.
2. This course satisfies an SAS Humanities requirement.
Instructor’s Learning Objectives
A) To determine what constitutes a myth and to examine the reasons that certain themes of myths endure over many
centuries in various guises.
B) To consider myths from a comparative stance in order to determine similarities and differences among the
mythological production of various cultures across the centuries.
C) To acquire awareness of the ways in which particular myths have shaped notions and formations of societal
groupings such as the family and the nation in order to interrogate the premises and prejudices inherent in such
groupings.
D) To further critical thinking and analytical skills by composing carefully considered written work that explores the
meaning and structure of mythology according to your own interpretations.
Department Learning Objectives
1. Students will demonstrate familiarity with a variety of world literatures as well as methods of studying literature
and culture across national and linguistic boundaries and evaluate the nature, function and value of literature
from a global perspective.
2.
They will demonstrate critical reasoning and research skills; design and conduct research in an individual field
of concentration (such as literary theory, women's literature, post colonial studies, literature and film, etc);
analyze a specific body of research and write a clear and well developed paper or project about a topic related to
more than one literary and cultural tradition.
Attendance
Because this course meets entirely online, attendance is based upon your prompt participation in the weekly Discussion
Forums. For your participation in the Discussion Forum, there will be two deadlines for each week: Friday evening
(11:59 pm) for the first part of the week and Sunday evening (11:59 pm) for the second part of the week. You are
allowed to miss two postings in the Discussion forum during the session. After you miss two, each Discussion Forum that
you miss or do not complete on time will result in your final course grade being lowered by one point. It is imperative for
you to note that although this is an asynchronous course, it is NOT a self-paced course. This means that you must
complete each weekly Discussion Forum and Online Learning activity sometime during the week in which it is assigned,
between 12:01am on Monday morning and 11:59pm on Friday evening (for the first part of the week) and between
12:01am on Saturday and 11:59pm on Sunday (for the second part of the week). After 11:59pm on Friday and Sunday
evenings respectively, I will lock down the Discussion Forums so that you will have read-only access, meaning that you
will not be able to post and will therefore lose any applicable points for that week.
Course Rules and Requirements
Technological Requirements: Access to a computer or laptop with broadband internet access, Windows or Mac
operating system. You will need to use a compatible browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox—some of the videos
and Flash animations may not be visible on Safari or Chrome. Also, note that all papers must be submitted in a .doc or
.docx format so that I may comment upon them using the Microsoft Word Review feature. Be sure to check your
RUTGERS email accounts at least daily, as this will be the principal means of my communications with the class.
Course Design
Each week, after you complete the required reading from the texts, you will be expected to complete the following tasks
in the following order:
A. Review the weekly lecture. The format of the weekly lecture varies; a lecture might be in the format of lecture
notes or a Power Point presentation.
B. Read and respond to the Discussion Forum in a timely fashion by posting an original and intelligible response of
approximately 200-300 words to the main questions listed under DISCUSSION on each weekly unit, which will
have 2 deadlines: Friday 11:59pm and Sunday 11:59pm (see the schedule). I will always post the first
response as a model for you to follow and will facilitate the discussion by responding to your postings. Students
who post first usually have an easier time not repeating what has been said elsewhere on the Discussion Forum,
and I will suggest aspects that students who post later might wish to emphasize. In addition to posting your own
original response, you must also briefly respond to at least TWO of your fellow student’s postings each part of
the week. After you post your original response by Friday night, you are required to respond to your
classmates’ responses by Sunday night. In brief, this means you have to post a minimum of THREE times
under each Discussion Forum per week. There will be 2 discussion questions for each week (with the exception
of the two first weeks in September. See the schedule for further details).
C. Throughout the class there will be 27 discussion forums in total. By the end of each discussion forum, each
student is required to provide a 300-word ( or more) summary or review of an entire (chosen in advance)
discussion forum where one analyzes and summarizes all the classmates’ responses dedicated to a particular
question. Such summaries/reviews by the end of each discussion forum should give us a clearer picture of the
dynamic of our online debates, their primary purpose is to fully elaborate the problematic question under
discussion as well as outline the main positions in the debates by showing how they agree/disagree with each
other. As a model for you to follow, I will post my own summaries for the first two weeks of our class. By midSeptember each student has to decide which discussion forum s/he wants to review (I’ll do my best to
accommodate your preferences). The discussion forum ends by Sunday night. The summary of the discussion
forum is due the following Wednesday night (11:59 pm). Therefore, each student will have 3 days to
summarize/review an assigned discussion forum.
D. Read the weekly Online Learning Activity, which varies from week to week. It will mostly consist of
educational weblinks or videos posted in the Webliography, such as biographical documentaries, lectures by
famous professors, or excerpts from films.
E. You are required to write 4 response papers (1-2 pages) during the entire course and submit them on time via
the E-college course website DROP BOX. You are also required to write 2 longer papers: midterm paper (4-5
pages) is due October 14 and final paper (8-9 pages) due December 14 (see the schedule for details). Response
papers are based on your close readings of the principal theoretical texts covered in class. Your midterm paper is
a formal analysis of one fictional text we read in class. The longer paper is a comparative project that requires
you to compare and contrast two or more mythological texts covered in class. Detailed instructions on these
papers will be located under the headings Response Paper and Final Paper Guidelines under Document Sharing
tab on the course e-college site. The prompts will be given to both response and midterm/final papers.
F. Post under the General Class Forum tab on the e-college website as needed. This tab is where you should post
any general questions or concerns about the course or the course materials that you cannot answer by reviewing
the course syllabus or the documents in the Document Sharing tab of the course. Please post these general
comments and questions here rather than send me a separate email: if you have a particular question about the
course or the course materials, chances are high that some of your fellow students will have the same question.
In addition, if you would like to initiate further discussions about the course readings and paper topics beyond
the scope of the Discussion Forums, or to commiserate with each other, this is the place to do so. This general
forum will not be graded; however, your participation will be noted by me and taken into consideration when I
determine the final course grades.
Plagiarism/Academic Integrity Policy:
Plagiarism is the use of other people’s words or ideas without proper acknowledgment; when referring to other people’s
ideas or using other people’s words include a footnote, or a page number of the work in question, in parentheses, at the
end of the sentence in which you refer to that person’s ideas or words, following MLA format. Include a Works Cited
page at the end of your paper. Violations of the Rutgers University Academic Integrity policy also include: cheating,
fabrication, denying others access to information or material, and facilitating violations of academic integrity. You may
familiarize yourself with the policy in its entirety here: http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml
Grading:
Participation in the Discussion Forum:
25%
Discussion Forum Summary:
10 %
4 Response Papers (1-2 pages each)
20% (5% each)
Midterm Paper (4-5 pages)
15%
Final paper (8-9 pages)
30%
Grade Points: A (90-100), B+ (86-89), B (80-86), C+ (77-79), C (70-76), D (60-69), F (59 and below)
Textbooks: The following books can be purchased at RU Bookstore or online (with exact ISBN)
Euripides. Bacchae. Hackett. ISBN: 0872203921
The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. N. K. Sanders. Penguin. ISBN: 014044100x
Bedier, Joseph. Tristan and Iseult. Vintage. ISBN: 0679750169.
Plato. Symposium. Hackett. ISBN: 0872200760
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Dover. ISBN: 0486285154
Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Penguin. ISBN: 9780451528957
Texts marked with * can be found on E-College and Rutgers Library Electronic Reserve on-line.
Schedule
Week 1: Sep 4 – Sep 9
Introduction. What is Myth?
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 1 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to the discussion question by Sep 7 and then, by Sep 9, respond to at least 2 of your fellow
students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Week 2: Sep 10 – 16
Sophocles, Oedipus the King*
Lecture Notes on Sophocles’ Oedipus the King
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 2 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to the discussion question by Sep 14 and then, by Sep 16, respond to at least 2 of your fellow
students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Week 3: Sep 17 – 23
Euripides, Bacchae
Lecture Notes on Bacchae
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 2 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of week 3 by Sep 21 and then, by Sep 23, respond to
at least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Week 4: Sep 24 – 30
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces*.
Claude Lévi-Strauss, ‘The Structural Study of Myth.’ *
Lecture Notes on Joseph Campbell and Claude Lévi-Strauss
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 4 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 4 by Sep 28 and then, by Sep 30, respond to
at least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Week 5: Oct 1 – 7
Carl Gustav Jung. Man and His Symbols*
Rene Girard. The Scapegoat Theory *
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 5 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 5 by Oct 5 and then, by Oct 7, respond to at
least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Response Paper 1 due Oct 7
Week 6: Oct 8 – 14
Epic of Gilgamesh
G. S. Kirk. ‘A Levi-Straussian Analysis of the Epic of Gilgamesh.’*
Lecture Notes on Epic of Gilgamesh
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 6 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 6 by Oct 5 and then, by Oct 7, respond to at
least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Midterm Paper due Oct 14
Week 7: Oct 15 – 21
Alexander Afanas’ev’s Russian Fairy Tales *
Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale *
Lectures Notes on Russian Fairy Tales and Propp
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 7 (part 1) in the Webliography (see Lecture
Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to the questions on the readings of Week 7 by Oct 19 and then, by Oct 21, respond to at least 4
of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Response Paper 2 (a fairy tale composed according to the Propp’s mythological model) due Oct 21
Week 8: Oct 22 – 28
Plato. Symposium
Lectures Notes on Symposium
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 8 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 8 by Oct 26 and then, by Oct 28, respond to
at least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Response Paper 3 due Oct 28
Week 9: Oct 29 – Nov 4
Tristan and Iseult
Lectures Notes on Tristan and Iseult
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 9 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 9 by Nov 2 and then, by Nov 4, respond to
at least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Extra Credit Response Paper on Any Film Adaptation of Tristan and Iseult due Nov 4.
Week 10: Nov 5 - 11
Friedrich Nietzsche. Birth of Tragedy (Chapters 1-4, 7-11)
Lectures Notes on Birth of Tragedy
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 10 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 10 by Nov 9 and then, by Nov 11, respond
to at least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Week 11: Nov 12 – 18
Friedrich Nietzsche. Birth of Tragedy (Chapters 12-16)
Lectures Notes on Birth of Tragedy
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 10 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 10 by Nov 9 and then, by Nov 11, respond
to at least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Response Paper 4 due Nov 18
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Week 13: Nov 26 – Dec 2
Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Lecture Notes on Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 13 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 13 by Nov 30 and then, by Dec 2, respond to
at least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Thesis Statement of the Final Paper (at least 7 sentences) due Dec 2
Week 14: Dec 3 – 9
Chuangtzu*
Lecture Notes on Chuangtzu
Online Learning Activity: Watch videos posted under the category Week 14 (see Lecture Notes for further details)
Discussion forum: Respond to 2 discussion questions on the readings of Week 14 by Dec 7 and then, by Dec 11, respond to
at least 4 of your fellow students’ postings (see the questions in the Discussion Forum for further details)
Final Paper (8-9 pages) due Dec 14