Blog #3: The Guidance of Myths
Before this class, I knew that myths were stories involving magic and supernatural beings that explained the way things were created. However, I was not too aware of all the types of myths and categories that existed. For example, the presentations in class taught me about Quetzalcoatl and how this myth expressed the significance of corn. I also learned about the tale of Tang and Lang, and the love triangle that transpired between the twins with their mutual friend. In addition, I learned about the Hawaiian fire goddess Pele and how she is worshipped for her divine female power. In other words, Pele taught me about the duality of nurture and how it can be manipulated into fear. For instance, her volcanic eruptions caused fear because of its violence, but it was also seen as a gift as it provided the people more land.
Moreover, studying and presenting about “Out of the Blue” and Sky Woman taught me how the Iroquois people explained the creation of Earth and life as we know it. Due to this assignment, I learned that the Iroquois confederacy influenced the U.S. Constitution. As for creating my own myth, I had a great time exploring my possibilities. I wanted to talk about aging and involve wolves into my myth. Creating a myth enhances the study of myth because it allows you to consider the reasons behind why certain things exist and how elaborate or absurd they can be.
From this experience, I learned that teaching myths is a great way for students to apply different critical lenses such as cultural, archetypal, and feminist perspectives to analyze deeper meanings, explore universal themes, and understand how stories reflect the values and beliefs of a society. Myths are a great way to engage students into understanding universal struggles. It’s a creative way of storytelling and allowing them to create their own myths would further encourage critical thinking.
Hi Melissa!
ReplyDeleteI checked out your myth site, and I thought you did a great job. It’s clear you really engaged with the myth assignment and put genuine thought into what you wanted to explore. I especially liked your point about the value of using myth in teaching. Because myths deal with such broad human experiences—like aging and mortality in the one you created—they seem like a good way to engage all kinds of critical perspectives and interpretations. This is something I hadn't totally considered. Nice work!
Hey Melissa! I love your perspective on how students can carry different perspectives into creating their own myths with a more modern lens. My own myth is definitely a lot more feminist than a typical ancient myth from patriarchal societies. My main powerful being character is female, and a man tries to steal her power but she refuses him. When two children come to her and ask her for help, she gladly teaches them her ways. Teaching myth from an archetypal lens is also really interesting because learning about characterizations that pop up over and over again in story after story will help students with their critical thinking skills to carry into analysis of other media. Myths in particular are really good at showcasing archetypes because characters tend to be very simple and narrowed down to one or two characteristics to make them easier to understand for a larger audience, and because they typically serve a specific purpose.
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