READ5830-0110 STORYTELLING INSTITUTE
Jim May: Personal Narrative, Culture, and Myth
June 4-8
SUMMER 2007 SYLLABUS
Instructor of record: Dr. Joseph Sobol
Office: 414 Warf-Pickel
Phone: 423-439-7863
E-mail: Sobol@etsu.edu
Office Hours: TBA
CATALOG DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to develop and refine the student’s ability as a storyteller.
INSTITUTE DESCRIPTION:World mythology and folklore can be viewed as a compendia of the life experiences, dreams, and imaginings of countless generations, who were able to artistically transmit their reality, wisdom, spiritual experience and longings down through the ages via the oral tradition. Our own life stories take on new meaning and provide grounding and guidance when seen through the prism of these universal myths and traditions. This workshop will encourage participants to examine their own individual and family experiences as sources for stories. As these memories are recounted in light of mythological principals, stories can emerge that instill a profound sense of integration, understanding, and pride in family and culture, despite past personal histories that may range from imperfect to tragic.
This five-day intensive will consist of a series of guided exercises to help participants discover the deeper levels of their own stories—the levels at which life dramas intersect with the mythic journeys of world folklore and literature. Bring stories that you are working on, and prepare to hold them up to the illumination of archetypes and myths.
SPECIFIC COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. Understand the basic structure of THE HEROIC JOURNEY as one of the universal foundations of mythology, by superimposing a template of the classic heroic story upon their own life stories, the common myths and folktales known to the group, and stories told to them by the instructor.
2. Will see their own life journeys through the prism of mythology by taking aspects of their own individual and family experience and charting it’s corresponding symbolic or archetypal placement within the classic mythology of the hero(ine). Carl Jung said that the most important task of the human being is to see what myth they are living.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of how mythology, defined as the combined beliefs, assumptions, mottoes, and aspirations of a cultural unit (family, neighborhood, ethnic group, state, nation...), impact the actions, rituals, stories and institutions of those varied cultural units, through discussion,
and giving examples from their own lives and experiences.
4. Will understand and have empathy with the cultural experience of others in the class by listening to their heroic struggles and triumphs in large and small group discussion and storytelling sessions.
COURSE TOPICS:
Each student will:
1. Participate in memory exercises designed to help them recover significant memories of family experience and share a least one family memory in a small group.
2. List the characteristics of their personal culture of birth, such as gender of birth, racial and ethnic composition, religion, economic class, education level of family, geographical location, etc. Each student will identify at least five of these culture-of-birth indicators and use them to begin a chain of personal cultural identifiers.
3. Participate in a discussion of choices made as an adult, the sum total of which help to define a culture of choice. These include aspects of one’s living situation over which the individual has some control such as: education, geographic location, occupation, marital status, political
viewpoint, religion, etc. These cultural indicators will then be added to culture of birth indicators to form an individual’s chain of cultural identifiers.
4. Participate in a discussion of how each family has a family mythology consisting of the language, customs, traditions, beliefs, mottos and mores of the particular family; the way that a family's mythology and history feeds/interacts with the mythology of the society at large--like that place where a river empties into the sea--is often a bountiful area in which to fish for stories, a rich place to lower one's net. Students will seine through these places of rich cultural confluence, bends, and conflicts, pulling out memories with the cognitive and imaginal nets constructed by the imagery exercises, activities, and discussions of the workshop.
ASSIGNMENTS:
Two round of informal peer coaching/telling 100 points
Class Participation 100 points
Reflective Journal 100 points
Final paper 200 points
500 total points
GRADING SCALE: A = 465 –500, A- = 450 – 464, B+ = 440–449, B =415–439,
B- = 400 –414, C+ = 390–399, F = 389 and below.
Reflective Journal-
Introspection
This writing explores moments in the workshop of personal growth and awareness. Students will keep a running commentary in journal form. After each session students are encouraged to reflect upon the material explored in the workshop and write about personal insights, surprises, challenges, and growth. A photocopy of the journal may be mailed to the instructor.
Reflective Essay-
Application
This essay transforms personal reflections on the experiences and skills obtained through the workshop into explorations on their application in repertoire development, educational curriculum goals in a school setting or in public performance. In a four page essay students will describe specific ways in which any aspect of the weekend’s material could be utilized in the context of their own professional practice. The essay should reflect an awareness of the social context of storytelling; how language choice and story selection impacts listeners.
Requirements for the essay: