FYS 109T MYTHS WE LIVE BY

This course explores the connections between stories we tell and how they influence our ideas of moral and ethical behavior.  It also explores the many creative ways people resist and subvert them. Themes include myths of the nation; myths of progress that grew out of the Enlightenment; and creation stories for the ways they construct race, ethnicity, and gender, such as the story of Adam and Eve that is common to Muslims and Christians. One of the goals of the course is to uncover the ways in which myths naturalize power structures and hierarchies in society.  Students will learn how these and other myths are contested through reinvention in a variety of cultural forms, including films such as The Legend of Bagger Vance and Star Wars, literature such as The Lord of the Rings, and theater such as Salah Abdel Sabour's "The Tragedy of al-Hallaj." Students will have the opportunity to play with some of these myths by creating their own reimaginings in a medium of their choosing.