M.A./Ph.D. in Mythological Studies
Myth and Literature
These courses focus on the interpretation of classical literature, poetry, and literary works from the medieval, modern, and postmodern periods.
Cultural Mythologies I, II, III
MS 514, 614, 714........ 2 Units each
These courses are taught on a periodic basis as means for investigating a cultural tradition or thematic topic that is not addressed in the current curriculum.
Joseph Campbell: Metaphor, Myth, and Culture
MS 516........ 2 Units
Following on Joseph Campbell’s insight that “metaphor is the native tongue of myth,” this course explores the centrality of myth in subjects as diverse as history, cosmology, religion, poetry as well as the wide range of world narratives as inflections of one great monomyth. These explorations examine the nature of mythic consciousness and provide insight into the power of myth in psyche and culture.
Folklore and Fairy Tales
MS 602........ 2 Units
The archetypal interpretation of folktales and fairy tales is the focus of this course. Principal themes include: theories concerning the origin and dissemination of folktales; review of mythological, sociological, and psychological approaches to the study of fairy tales; the purpose and meaning of violence in fairy tales; parallels between the archetypal motifs of fairy tales and their manifestation on psychology and culture.
Epic Imagination
MS 604........ 2 Units
Epics are stories created by poets to give an entire people a sense of their history and their destiny. As stories that give shape and coherence to their collective myth, epics engage the figure of the epic hero, who either breaks through the conventional wisdom of the people or re-establishes their most profound wishes.
Myth and the Underworld
MS 619........ 3 Units
The underworld is place, condition and situation. This course explores both the journey to, the dwelling within, and the departure from, this nether region of the soul. Poetic renderings of the Underworld offer the richest repositories for the insights gleaned in this arena. The inescapable journey down and into the realm of the invisibles, where figures who journey there begin to discern its patterns, its darkness, and its treasures, is the focus of this course. In the Underworld, the archetypal ground of being is confronted most directly. Works from the early Sumerian period to contemporary psychological and literary illustrations will amplify the complexity of this depth.
Myths of the Self: Memoir and Autobiography
MS 726........ 3 Units
This course examines the mythic aspects of these two literary genres (memior and autobiography) and engages questions concerning the relation of memory and the imagination, the individual and the archetypal, self and others, and narcissism and guilt. Attention is given to classic examples of the genres, as well as reflections on the defining characteristics of these genres by literary critics, depth psychologists, and feminists. Pass/No Pass
Selected Topics in Mythological Studies I, II, III, IV
MS 599, 699, 799, 899........ 1-4 Units each
Course content varies.
Dante’s Commedia: A Triple Journey into Depth and Individuation
MS 727........ 2 Units
Beginning with a brief study of La Vita Nuova, a collection of Dante’s poems that placed him on the poetic path to write his grand work, the Commedia, this course studies the three canticas that comprise the poem: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Through a close reading of the text, students engage in Dante’s progression through these three stages of increased awareness to investigate the 14th century mythos that guided the poet and to ask what relevance such a worldview might have for us today.
