Mythography

Course Description

Mythography is the process by which myths become graphed, or narratives become textualized. We will explore this process in its full range, from ancient writing systems to sound recording, comparing the works of such mythographers as playwrights, poets, novelists, and compilers of sacred books, on the one hand, and those of folklorists, linguists, and ethnographers on the other. Narrative, which can be highly lyrical, will be distinguished from story, whose movement is determined by plot. Our attention will be centered on narratives that are spoken rather than sung. In the folktale (and not in the epic) may be found the oral analog (and source) of the multivocal discourse of the novel, a fact which is missed by Bakhtin. There will be exercises in the scripting of sound recordings. Term papers may be based either on sound recordings or on narratives that have already been textualized by means of writing. Writers and performers will be welcome to put mythography directly into practice. Readings will include David Antin, i never knew what time it was; M. M. Bakhtin, ?Discourse in the Novel?; Ed Dorn, Gunslinger; Robert Duncan, ?The Truth and Life of Myth?; Brenda M. Farnell, Do You See What I Mean? Plains Indian Sign Talk and the Embodiment of Action; Claude L?vi-Strauss, ?The Structural Study of Myth?; Charles Olson, ?Causal Mythology?; Dennis Tedlock, Breath on the Mirror: Mythic Voices and Visions of the Living Maya; and W. B. Yeats, Mythologies.

Code

APY 694

Credits

3

Subject

Anthropology