Week 7:  Story and Myth

      Myths differ from legends in that legends have more historical background whereas traditional myths draw on the supernatural.  Myths differ from fables in that fables stress a moral teaching whereas myths draw from a racial/cultural group history and are not the work of an individual.  Every country and literature has its mythology.  Elements common to mythology are creation, the divine, the meaning of life, explanations of nature, and the tales of heroes-- people of great virtue and power. 

       Jung and Cassirer, and certainly the recent work of Joseph Campbell,  have added new understandings to creativity and the use of myth, especially in literature and by the mass media. Please note however the significant differences between myth in the traditional, the literary, and the mass media expressions.  Traditional myth is non-literary; it is not meant to be a representation of truth but "the truth."  Literary myth is the work of the poet, song writer, and story teller to intelligibly and consciously use primitive images and motifs to express deep feelings and to evoke a universal response in the audience.  Mass media myth is the work of  marketers and political writers (using the new knowledge of  psychology, sociology, and anthropology) to find and extend the basic archetypes and paradigms in the objects of mass consumption (whether Campbell soup,  Camels, or condominiums) which can further shape logos, trade names, pitches, and sound bites to score on the pre- and non-logical emotions of the potential consumer.  It is thus that we get "epidemics of crime" and "skyrocketing fuel prices" used to move audiences  to action often in antithesis to the truth or the facts. In America, the Kennedy family has taken on mythological status and the loss of a family member evokes a national mourning.   Princes and princesses as still within the collective unconscious of the republic. 

     Browse the reading links this week (don't expect to read  all) and select a story to read and comment on like you did with an Emerson essay in Week 6.  Be sure to also do the same with a favorite modern story for the writing task.  Remember to point out a specific myth in each.  For example,  princesses are more sensitive (softer, finer, more delicately made) than you girl. This myth explains the high overhead of royalty  and the need for servants, silks, and taxes on the peasants.