21W.758 | Fall 2016 | Undergraduate

Genre Fiction Workshop: Fantasy

Lecture Notes

Session 2

Myth & Sandman (Carl Jung)

What is Myth? vs. Legend?

Myth - article “stories of the gods”

Myth resonates in the realm of sacred where there is meaning

Campbell & Myth - 4 functions

  1. Mystical - put us in touch with the wonder - what a wonder the universe is, what we are, and to experience awe before this wonder
  2. Cosmology - an image of this universe - what it is made of, what it looks like, who inhabits it!
  3. Sociological - tells people how to behave and to support a certain social order
  4. Psychological - how to live a human life (a good life) under any circumstances

Myth as metaphor/myth IS metaphor

Dream/myth/gods

We dream/create gods

Gaimen - the business of fantasy is to make metaphors concrete

Jung and the Collective Unconscious

  • How do you feel about it?

  • Accept? Reject?

(Fear of snakes & big cats - biological - our predators, even among urban people)

Jungian Archetypes

Let’s discuss then get into a few that are relevant to Fantasy

  • The King
  • The Shadow - personal - what we present in social roles
  • Anima/Animus - self-combination, fully integrated
  • Father - stern, powerful, authority
  • Mother - nurturing, comfort
  • Child - longing for innocence, rebirth, salvation
  • Wise Old man - guidance, knowledge, wisdom
  • Hero - champion, defender, rescuer
  • Maiden - innocence, desire, purity
  • Trickster - deceiver, liar, troublemaker

Tolkien - myth Eddas

Tolkien as a Beowulf scholar

Doll’s House

  • Prologue as myth

  • Nada and Dream (as Kai’ckl)

  • Nada knows she cannot marry the Endless even if they love each other. She is mortal, he is NOT, he is other

Rose Walker

Course Info

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As Taught In
Fall 2016
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Lecture Notes
Written Assignments with Examples