For class: Monday, November 21st

We will be adding two new literary genre/structures for Monday. As you review both, hopefully you will see how they link to archeytpes.

1.Open the link to EPIC notes... not that the notes are epic..  well, they kind of are... but they are notes on the literary EPIC. EPIC NOTES

The Epic
* A long narrative poem, derived from the ancient oral tradition, telling the deeds and adventures of a heroic or legendary figure, or the history of a nation.

Please have EPIC notes in YOUR epic notebooks for class on Monday, November 18th.

2. Please have the following notes on MYTH in your notes for Monday, also.

The Myth 

* Myth is a constant among all human being in all times. The pattern stories, even details contained in myth are found everywhere and among every one. This is because myth is a shared heritage of ancestral memories, related consciously from generation to generation.

1. Myth may even be part of the structure of our unconscious mind, possibly encoded in our genes. eg. "the Oedipus complex" and "the Electra complex"

2. Myth is a telling of events that happened before written history, and of a sense of what is to come.
3. Myth is the thread that holds past, present, and future together.

4. Myth is a unique use of language that describes the realities beyond our five senses.  It fills the gaps between the images of the unconscious and the language of conscious logic.

5. Myth is the glue that holds societies together; it is the basis of identity for communities, tribes, and nations.  (Hero worship and gender, social, national identity)

6. Myth is an essential ingredient in all codes of moral conduct.   The rules for living have always derived their legitimacy from their origins in myth and religion.

7. Myth is a pattern of beliefs that give meaning to life. Myth enables individuals and societies to adapt to their respective environments with identity and value. (Joseph Campbell--the power of myth)

PURPOSE:
Myths tell us about:
1. Our relationship with each other.
2. Our relationship with a god(s) and the cosmos.
3. Our relationship with the natural world and the species that inhabit it.