ENGL 260A

Myth Criticism

Introduces and traces through several literary works and genres the fundamental topics in myth criticism; significance of ritual, fairy tales, and archetypal romance forms; contributions of Freudian, Lacanian, and Jungian psychology and their relation to Joseph Campbell's notion of the monomyth; relevance of Victor Turner's "liminal" theories of rites of passage in anthropology; importance of recent discoveries with the bicameral and "triune" brain in biological sciences; kinds of myth (hero, heroine, American, love, wasteland, artist, time); and relationships between myth criticism and post-structuralism.

Units: 3.0