Methodology and Theoretical Frameworks
for the Study of Myth
The study of myths investigates how humanity has wrestled with its greatest questions and its deepest commitments. It examines how people make sense of their lives, form identities and relate to their world. However, how we have thought about myth and religion, and how we have studied religion is not neutral, nor universal. This study has been shaped by a long and violent history, much of it rooted in European colonialism. Therefore, this course introduces the study of myth and the history of that study in consideration of key issues such as gender, race, and the European historical development of colonialism. This course trains students to think carefully and critically about mythology based on interdisciplinary approaches, engaging history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology and hermeneutics. It introduces frameworks to study religion such as intersectionality, modernity, postmodernism, metamodernity, decolonial theory and indigeneity. It explores landmark texts in religious studies and key themes framing religious studies while focusing on the present and future of mythological studies. This course combines theoretical rigor with practical application, helping students develop their own methodological approaches to mythological studies. Thus, it combines traditional textual scholarship with self-reflective learning.
Professor: Dr. Kali Cape
www.KaliCape.com
Sample Reading Assignment:
- Jung, C. G. “Psychological Commentary.” In The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, according to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup’s English Rendering, edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, xxvi-lii. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Xxvi-lii
- Gomez, Luis 0. 1995. “Oriental Wisdom and the Cure of Souls: Jung and the Indian East.” In Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism, Donald S. Lopez, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. 197-250
- Cajete, Gregory. “Relational Philosophy,” Distributed Perception: Resonances and Axiologies. Lushetich, Natasha, and Iain Campbell, eds. Routledge, 2021. 17-31
Homework: Mythologies of death
Draw a death-map that identifies all the people, places, symbols, rituals, and arts that would make an ideal death for you or someone in your culture. You may produce a collage, simply type it out, or use graphic design to display this in an aesthetically rich way.
Prepare to discuss it in class along with these questions:
What mythologies of the self, place, or dying are evident in your map?
How does community or a specific place shape the mythologies of death?
What ontologies or cosmological frameworks are represented?
Final Assignment: Writing your life through the lens of theory
Autoethnography is a cutting edge, emerging academic methodology that disrupts the ontological, epistemological and axiological limitations of modern and postmodern academic writing. It invites writers to make sense of themselves and their experience in relationship to the theory that has been studied.
For the final paper, write a 10-15 page paper critically reflecting on key events in a life through the lens of two theories we have studied in this course. You will write in the style of autoethnography using your own life story or the life story and events of someone close to you. It should include principles of autoethnography as described in the article “Practicing Autoethnography, Living the Autoethnographic Life,” in iCollege. Examine how theory applies or does not apply to the life and life events you write about. Notice what it misses or what it makes visible. Thus, refer to:
Ellis, Carolyn, Tony E. Adams, and Arthur P. Bochner. “Autoethnography: an overview.” Historical social research/Historische sozialforschung (2011): 273-290.
Ellis, Carolyn, and Tony E. Adams. “Practicing autoethnography and living the autoethnographic life.” (2020).
Guidelines: Papers will use 1.5 line spacing, 12 point Times New Roman Font and Chicago Style citations and bibliography. First drafts are due June 15th and will be circulated for peer review among your classmates. You will also receive feedback from your professor as well. The final draft is due July 15th.