Riverside Community College District
Integrated Course Outline of Record

Humanities 8

1. Read, analyze, and critically discuss college-level literary texts, recognizing key ideas and literary elements.
   


2. Support oral and written arguments about literary works with effectively integrated, relevant, and sufficient evidence drawn (as appropriate) from texts.
   


3. Compose developed, unified, coherent, stylistically fluent essays that demonstrate an ability to critically reflect on the texts and issues addressed in the class.
   

Recognize and appreciate some of the distinctive features of mythology across a variety of cultural, historical, and discursive contexts;

Relate various myths from different cultures and time periods to one another and to theories of the origins and cultural functions of myth;

Evaluate the relevance to and continuity of myths within modern thought, culture, and literature;

Employ college-level methods of literary analysis to reading and interpreting myths;

Demonstrate critical thinking and writing skills through the process of constructing unified, coherent, and stylistically fluent written responses to, analyses of, and arguments about mythology.

• Lectures and demonstrations on mythological systems, motifs, archetypes and symbols, and theories.
• Class discussions about mythology and differing theories and critical interpretations.
• Guest writers/lecturers invited to class to discuss topics related to mythology and ritual literature.
• Field trips to selected museums or cultural exhibits which promote and enhance understanding of mythological motifs, archetypes and symbols.
• Showing films, videos, PowerPoint presentations, distributing handouts, and/or using electronic or computer-based media in order to reinforce understanding of concepts related to the various social, cultural, artistic and anthropological approaches to myth.
• Cooperative/collaborative learning tasks and activities designed to assist students in applying concepts in mythology and in synthesizing ideas about myth and culture.
• Assignment of primary mythological texts complex enough to facilitate the development of critical thinking and reading skills.
• Assignment of secondary criticism that supports the understanding of the primary texts and models the interpretive and analytical skills being covered in the class
• Individual conferences in order to evaluate and advise students on course content and strategies for improving their thinking, reading, and writing skills.

• The writing of a minimum of 3000 words of formal interpretive/analytical prose designed to demonstrate students’ ability to employ college-level methods of analysis to interpret mythology and demonstrate critical thinking and writing skills. These can be assigned as in-class or take-home essays.
• Individual and group assignments designed to demonstrate successful understanding and application of basic concepts and definitions related to the origins and cultural functions of myth, as well as students’ ability to recognize the distinctive features of mythology and to employ college-level methods of literary analysis to interpret this literature.
• Questions on topics and content designed to evaluate students’ understanding of the key approaches to understanding mythological motifs, type scenes, symbology, and the like.
• Active class participation as required by instructor including collaborative learning projects, oral reports, presentations, performances, debates, discussions designed to evaluate students’ critical thinking and literary analysis skills and to measure the students’ ability to explain how mythology can be interpreted and analyzed.
• Quizzes/examinations designed to assess students’ ability to recall, critically analyze and apply key concepts and course content such as mythological motifs and archetypes, major types of myths, and approaches to the study of myth.
• Final examination designed to synthesize the topics of the class, measure students’ comprehension of the material, and demonstrate achievement of student learning outcomes.

• Dundes, Alan. Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth. any: University of CA Press, 1984.
• Leeming, David Adams. The World of Myth: An Anthology. any: Oxford UP, 1992.
• Leonard, Scott and Michael McClure. Myth & Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology. any: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
• Lowry, Shirley P. . Familiar Mysteries: The Truth in Myth. any: Replica Books, 2001.
• Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology. 3 ed. any: McGraw-Hill, 2001.
• Full text editions of various texts mentioned above chosen by instructor for significance and appropriateness to course objectives and topics.
  
  Critical readings on myth from any of the following: Northrup Frye, Karl Jung, Bruno Bettelheim, Mircea Eliade, Stith Thompson, Joseph Campbell, Maud Bodkin, Alan Dundes, Bronislaw Malinowski, Erich Fromm, and Slarissa Pinkola Estes.