Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey; Archetypes; Northrup Frye; Gilgamesh

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Period 1: 

 This morning take 10 minutes to complete the Jungian Personality Test. You may use what you learn to create a character for a story/play/film, etc. You may also use the personality types to do the same. Did you learn something about yourself from taking the test? How accurate is the test in your opinion? [Realize that you may be defensive or unconscious about your TRUE personality...]

 In his book Pathways to Bliss, Joseph Campbell defines four functions of myths:
  • Evoke existential thought (answer: what is the meaning of my life?)
  • Present an image of the cosmos (and your relation to it)
  • Validate society or culture (& its rules)
  • Make sense of a person's stages of life (birth, adolescence, adulthood, old age, death)
Joseph Campbell's hero's journey
  • Crash Course #25 (Hero's Journey)
  •  Use Jungian archetypes for characters (ego types): the trickster, shadows, the caregiver, the rebel, etc. Look at the 12 common archetypes here. You may also use Northrop Frye's or Joseph Campbell's archetypes. Feel free to combine, change, remove, or extend the characters in the original myth.
Writing challenge: Use Campbell's theories and Jungian archetypes in a story of your own. You can combine this with intertextuality, mythology, stream of consciousness, or any other idea we have covered so far in this course. If you create anything (a draft or more) put it in your writing portfolio!

Northrup Frye's Four Mythos:
  • Spring: Comedy: 1. Existent society remains, 2. Criticism of society without change, 3. Existent society replaced by a happy society, 4. Happy society resists change, 5. Reflective and idyllic view, 6. Society ceases to exist beyond contemplation. Ex. Waiting for Godot. 1984. A Clockwork Orange. Midsummer Nights' Dream.
  • Summer: Romance: 1. Complete innocence, 2. youthful innocence of inexperience, 3. Completion of an ideal, 4. Happy society resists change, 5. Reflective and idyllic view, 6. Society ceases to exist beyond contemplation. Jane Eyre or Pride & Prejudice.
  • Autumn: Tragedy: 1. Complete innocence, 2. youthful innocence of inexperience, 3. Completion of an ideal, 4. Individual’s faults, 5. Natural law, 6.World of shock and horror. Macbeth. Romeo & Juliet.
  • Winter: Irony & Satire: 1. Existent society remains, 2. Criticism of society without change, 3. Existent society replaced by a happy society, 4. Individual’s faults, 5. Natural law, 6. World of shock and horror. 1984. Hunger Games. Brave New World. Gulliver's Travels.
Writing Challenge: Use one of Northrup Frye's archetypal seasons as the basis or plotline of a story, play, or film script.

Period 2: (or earlier)

Gilgamesh (Crash Course)

Characteristics of Epics
  • Great length (obviously longer than a dithyramb (choral song), ode, lyric, narrative, or dramatic poem) 
  • Dignified tone & elevated style (the tone is often formal; the diction often metaphoric or figurative)
  • Deal with a single person; a certain, specific people; or the history of a race in a period of crisis
  • Supernatural events and characters (often Gods and Goddesses and/or monsters)
  • The epic often includes a contradiction between society values and the individual
  • There is often a flashback to past problems that also foreshadow events to come
  • The deeds of the hero in an epic affirm both the individuality of the hero and the collective consciousness of the society.
  • Primary epics were originally composed to be sung and later written down (i.e, Homer, Beowulf, etc.)
  • Secondary epics were originally written to be read (i.e, Milton’s Paradise Lost)
  • Mock epics poke fun at the form (i.e., The Rape of the Lock)
Gilgamesh Task:

1. Sign up for one of the chapters in the epic. Read this chapter and summarize it. Next class you will work with your chapter partner to draw a comic book or sketch a mind-map or concept map of Gilgamesh's journey for that chapter. Be prepared to summarize key events in the chapter with the class and to apply Joseph Campbell and Jungian archetypes to your reading as a way to "unlock" the chapter's mysteries and structure. 

2. With the rest of class today, please work on:
A. Your portfolio. Check out the writing prompts/challenges below. 
Portfolios are due Thursday. Remember: you need a reflection (1-2 pages), revision of some piece you wrote a first draft of this marking period, and drafts of your projects/works. Remember to proofread as well! Grammar counts! 
B. Read your chosen chapter of Gilgamesh. Summarize the main plot points/details about Gilgamesh's journey. 
HOMEWORK: Prepare your portfolio. Read your chosen chapter of Gilgamesh. Briefly summarize your chapter.

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