01:195:244:02 Sergey Toymentsev
Class meets: TTh 2:50 – 4:10 PM; SC-203 setoymen@rci.rutgers.edu
Office hour: TTh 1:30 – 2:40 PM at Art Library or by appointment
Introduction to Mythology
Course description and objective
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 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 the Western and non-Western traditions, examine the relationship between these myths and human psyche, explore their influences on art, religion and philosophy, and study their roles in the development of human civilization in general. The goal of the course is to improve the students’ reading and analytical skills of both literary and theoretical texts as well as their writing skills, to initiate them into understanding cultural products contextually and provide them with new perspectives to understand the world and themselves.
Calendar
1/22 Introduction. What is Myth?
1/24 Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces* .
Film Screening: Joseph Campbell: The Hero’s Journey (biographical documentary)
1/29 Sophocles. Oedipus the King *
1/31 Sigmund Freud . Totem and Taboo* . (Chapter 1)
Film Screening: Sigmund Freud: Analysis of a Mind (biographical documentary, 1997)
2/5 Sigmund Freud . Totem and Taboo* . (Chapter 4)
2/7 Claude Lévi-Strauss ,
‘The Structural Study of Myth.’
*
Film Screening: Oedipus Wrecks (Woody Allen, 1989)
2/12 Euripides, Bacchae
2/14 Rene Girard’s Scapegoat Theory *
2/19 Carl Gustav Jung. Man and His Symbols*.
2/21 Epic of Gilgamesh
2/26 Epic of Gilgamesh
G. S. Kirk. ‘A Levi- Straussian Analysis of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
’*
2/28 Alexander Afanas’ev’s Russian Fairy Tales *
3/5 Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale *
3/7 Film Screening: Run Lola Run (dir. Tom Tykwer, 1998)
3/12 Midterm Exam
3/14 Plato. Symposium (ix-44)/ Midterm Paper due (5 pages)
3/26 Plato. Symposium (45-79)
3/28 Tristan and Iseult
4/2 Film Screening: The Woman Next Door (dir. François Truffaut, 1981)
4/4 Friedrich Nietzsche.
Birth of Tragedy (Chapters 1-4, 7-10)
4/9 Friedrich Nietzsche.
Birth of Tragedy (Chapters 11-16)
4/11 Thomas Mann. Death in Venice* (Chapters 1-3)
4/16 Thomas Mann. Death in Venice* (Chapters 4-5)
4/18 Sigmund Freud, ‘The Ego and the Id’ *
Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (37-75)
4/23 Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (76-137)
4/25 Chuangtzu* (Chapters 1-3)

4/30 Chuangtzu* (Chapters 17-19)
5/2 Final exam , Final Paper due
Textbooks : The following books can be purchased at RU Bookstore
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 Rutgers Library Electronic Reserve on-line.
Course Requirements and Grading Policy
Attendance and Class Participation
Attendance for each and every entire class period is mandatory. Each student is allowed 3 unexcused (excused absences must be accompanied by dean’s notes) absences throughout the semester. Beyond that each unexcused absence will result in a lower grade by 5 points. Students are expected to participate in all class activities
Two Papers
You are required to write TWO papers for this class. First paper ( 5 pages ) is due March 8 th.
Second paper ( 10 pages ) is due the date of the final exam (May 2 nd ) . Both papers must be typed/printed double-spaced on one side of white 8 ½” X
11” paper with 1” margins on the left, right, top and bottom. Do not justify your margins. Use only Times New Roman
#12 fonts. Papers will be free of typographical, grammatical and spelling errors. Please refer to MLA handbook for all other formal matters that are not mentioned here. Late papers are NOT accepted.
Pre-class preparation
Students are expected to read the assigned texts very carefully before coming to class and ask 3 discussion questions that they consider most important to the understanding of each text. An interesting discussion question should be well formulated and consist of at least TWO sentences as if it were a potential thesis statement. In the first sentence you introduce the example or problem you’ve found interesting in the text and then, in the second sentence, you ask a discussion question about it. These questions should be typed and printed out and will be collected at the beginning of each class to be evaluated based on their relevance and depth.
Presentation
Each student is required to do one presentation, either individually or with other students, on one chosen text throughout the session. Schedule of presentation will be determined during our first class. Each presentation should last about 10 minutes. The goal of your presentation is to help your fellow students further understand the assigned text and exchange ideas on aspects of the text that you find most intriguing. Things that other students have done include:
 presentation of the author’s biography or a different text—visual, audio or literary—that will enhance our understanding of the assigned text


 original artwork based on your understanding of the assigned text

 performance inspired by the assigned text
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Please do not be limited to these options. I am looking forward to witnessing and marveling at your creativity and imagination. The evaluation of your presentation will be primarily based on the ability of your presentation to engage your fellow students to explore the rich potential of the assigned text, but I will also take into consideration the effort you put into preparing for the presentation, your own grasp of the text, and your communicative skills.
Extra-Credit Response Paper
We will be watching three films in this class. After each film you are welcome to write an optional response paper which would analyze film in mythological terms.
Grades
Class participation and pre-class questions: 20%
Presentation: 10%
Midterm: 15%
Midterm Paper: 15%
Final Exam: 15%
Final paper: 25%
All grades are nonnegotiable unless the student can demonstrate that I make a mathematical error.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else’s ideas or writing in your own work: it is stealing and lying. All cases of plagiarism will be referred to the Provost with the recommendation of expulsion from the university. Refer to the following website on academic integrity. http://www.rcstudentservice.rutgers.edu/academic_integrity.html