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ASTD 593: MYTHBUSTING AND MYTHMAKING IN RECENT AMERICAN STUDIES
SCHOLARSHIP
Giambattista Tiepolo, Venus Appearing to Aeneas on the Shores of Carthage (1757)
Villa Vilmarana, Vicenza
FALL 2010
Dr. Matthew Mancini
Adorjan 131
977-2990
WELCOME to our seminar. It is widely known, if not always well understood, that many full-blown
myths circulate in American culture, and that these mythic discourses often serve to obscure people’s
view of the histories for which those myths are substitutes. What’s less well known is the precise role
of academic scholarship in the career of such myths—sometimes in uncovering them, and sometimes
in propping them up. In this seminar we will examine two areas of American mythmaking, one that
surrounds the Vietnam War, and another concerning the Civil War and its aftermath. In addition, we
will take a few detours to briefly visit other precincts of Mythland; and you will identify one mythic
construct and carefully critique it with your own scholarship.
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COURSE OBJECTIVES—by the end of our course you will be able to:

Demonstrate a sound, sophisticated understanding of mythology and its role in a culture’s
self-understanding.

Recount accurately at least two of the great mythical tales of the ancient world, and show
their persistence in the modern world.

Explain how myths intersect with scholarship.

Elucidate the distinction between mythical and historical modes of understanding with regard
to specific problems of the Vietnam War and the Civil War-Reconstruction periods.
And you will have:

Produced a portfolio-worthy paper or other form of scholarship on a myth of your choosing.

Advanced your specific goals within the graduate program, by means of individual
consultations and directed research.

Improved your academic verbal skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
BOOKS REQUIRED FOR PURCHASE—AVAILABLE AT CAMPUS BOOKSTORE:
Bruce Ackerman, We The People: Transformations (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998)
Michael J. Allen, Until the Last Man Comes Home: POWs, MIAs, and the Unending Vietnam War
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009)
Roland Barthes, Mythologies, trans. Annette Lavers (New York: Hill and Wang, 1972)
David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 2001)
Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)
H. Bruce Franklin, MIA: Or, Mythmaking in America (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993)
Edith Hamilton, Mythology (Boston: Back Bay Books, 1998)
Jerry Lembcke, The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam (New York: New York
University Press, 1998)
Plato, The Republic, trans. Richard W. Sterling and William C. Scott (New York: Norton, 1985)
Jon Wiener, Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud, and Politics in the Ivory Tower (New York: The
New Press, 2005)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This is in most respects a traditional graduate seminar, with readings, discussion, and research. As
such, it is of the highest importance for every student to arrive at every session prepared to engage
in substantive discussion. This will constitute 30 percent of your grade. For every session, one student
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will keep a set of “official” notes that will be copied and distributed in the next class—10 percent of
your grade. Every student will be responsible for being a discussion leader for two classes—20
percent. The major course requirement is a substantial piece of research in which you identify and
critique one cultural myth, whether it be in a professional group, a subculture, a political alignment,
or any other social location. Your research presentation, written and oral, constitutes the remaining 40
percent.
Here are a few matters of classroom procedure.
Civil discourse: In any university setting, but especially in a graduate seminar, this entails complete
freedom of discussion of ideas presented in a manner that is courteous and sensitive to the positions
of others, both students and faculty.
Integrity: A student who cheats or plagiarizes will flunk that portion of the course in which the
violation occurs. However, based on the severity of any violation, I reserve the right to fail the student
for the course. Students are expected to be familiar with, and follow, the university’s policy on
academic integrity, which can be found at: http://www.slu.edu/x19062.xml. That policy reads, in small
part: “in general . . . soliciting, receiving, or providing any unauthorized assistance in the completion
of any work submitted toward academic credit is dishonest. It not only violates the mutual trust
necessary between faculty and students but also undermines the validity of the University’s evaluation
of students and takes unfair advantage of fellow students.”
Academic Accommodations: Students who believe that, due to the presence of a disability, they may
need academic accommodations in order to meet the requirements of this, or any other, class at
Saint Louis University are encouraged to contact Disability Services at 314-977-8885 or by visiting by
the Student Success Center, Suite 331 Busch Student Center. Confidentiality will be observed in all
inquiries. I am only able to support student accommodation requests upon receipt of an approved
letter from Disability Services. I will gladly speak with approved students after registration with
Disability Services.
Classroom courtesy: Please do not eat or drink during class. Taping or other forms of recording are
not permitted. Turn off your cell phones and close your laptops.
Students must complete all requirements to pass the course. This syllabus can be changed at my
discretion.
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS:
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August 25
Plato, The Republic. The myth of the metals, Book III, pp. 110-15; allegory of
the cave, Book VII. Distinguishing between myth and allegory.
September 1
Barthes, Mythologies.
September 8
Eliade, Cosmos and History; Hamilton, Mythology (selections).
September 15
Franklin, MIA
September 22
Lembcke, Spitting Image
September 29
Film: Rambo: First Blood, Part II
October 6
Allen, Until the Last Man Comes Home. Distribute first drafts of mythbusting
projects for discussion and criticism.
October 13
Peer-review writing workshop. Criticism of paper drafts.
October 20
Wiener, Historians in Trouble.
October 27
Myth and American Studies origins. Articles by Leo Marx, George Lipsitz, and
Amy Kaplan on American Studies in American Literary History 17:1 (Spring 2005): 118-47. See
also: Oscar Handlin, “Arawaks,” American Scholar 49, no. 4 (Autumn 1980), 546-50; Robert
Nisbet, “Many Tocquevilles,” ibid., 46, no. 1 (Winter 1976-77), 59-75.
November 3
Yehoshua Arieli, “Nationalism,” in Encyclopedia of American Political History,
ed. Jack P. Greene (New York: Scribner’s, 1984) (not on e-reserve); Ackerman, We The People,
Part I. Film: Birth of a Nation (selected scenes).
November 10
Ackerman, We The People, Part II. Blight, Race and Reunion, Chap. 4. Birth of
a Nation (cont.). Highly recommended: Michael Rogin, “‘The Sword Became a Flashing Vision’: D.
W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation,” Representations 9 (1985), 150-95.
November 17
Blight, Race and Reunion, Chaps. 8-10.
December 1
Presentations.
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