2. Components of the Course The Hero’s Journey Myth- analyzing and creating Symbolism The Collective Unconscious Dreams FANTASY
3. Texts The Hero With A Thousand Facesby Joseph Campbell Wizard of Earthseaby Ursula LeGuin On a Pale Horseby Piers Anthony Princess Brideby William Golding
4. Movies (some, but not all) Star Wars Trilogy (IV, V, VI) Batman Begins The Matrix The Power of Myth
5. What Else We Will Be Doing! Journal Writing 4 Critical Essays Reflective Writing Critical Thinking and Debating College Essay Fantasy Story Analytical Paper Exploring!!!!
6. Expectations I treat this class as a college course! Therefore it is a more relaxed environment. This means more responsibility on your part, less reminding on my part. We will be engaged in a lot of critical discourse. TheHero With A Thousand Facescan be difficult because it is a college level text. Essays need to be edited, typed, and written in MLA format.
8. Journal Assessment- an essential component! Journals Assessment Your journals are a place to reflect. There are times when I will give you specific journal assignments. I will collect the journals periodically--. The idea is to create an ongoing discourse, a conversation with yourself, the characters, the author and me. How many journal assignments are appropriate? I cannot answer that question. If you do the minimum which is answer the specific journal assignments that are assigned you will at most receive a C to D range. What is A work? Effort-- a true discourse which includes classroom discussion, the books, movies, other materials, and your own thoughts. It means taking the initiative to really question--reflect--disagree-wonder about all we are doing in class and in our lives.
9. Some Questions to Ponder Do you believe dreams are important? Do we have a soul? Who are your heroes? What is sin? What is myth? Do we need myth? Why are symbols important? Are there universal symbols? What is the difference between conscious and unconscious? Is instinct important? Does our culture need mythology? Do you believe in magic? Does it even exist?
11. The Journey It is my hope that this class will provide an environment of exploration and cultivation of ideas and theories. Our culture has lost much of the art of story telling, yet we love our heroes! We will explore our own definitions of fantasy, myth, and culture. You will be asked to keep an open mind because many of us share differing beliefs! Through critical discourse we can create new myths through our collective experiences and stories!