CORE - 105

Words of Wonder

1/23/24 - Lenses and Archetypes

Lenses: seeing readings and analyzing them from different views

Etiological Lens: an explanatory way of seeing myths (e.g. why does the sun rise and set every day, must be a sun god riding a chariot through the sky)

Anthropological Lens: a ritualistic way of seeing myths (e.g. why do we put up Christmas trees?)

Ethical/Moral Lens: an ethical way of seeing myths that provides a lesson at the end on social norms or regularly accepted morals (e.g. don’t lie or you’ll be eaten by wolves)

Religious Lens: belief systems based on stories or stories that depict figures of worship in religion (e.g. the sun isn’t just the sun, she is a goddess we should pray to)

Psychological Lens: analyzing why a myth is told and how it could teach people to think (e.g. This man turns into a flower because he stares at himself for so long, teaches people to dislike vanity)

Historical/Political: a way of analyzing a myth that gives a sense of national identity or current politics at the time it was popular (e.g. Augustus isn’t just emperor of Rome, he is born of the gods and that’s why he’s the best ruler)

Archetypes: deposits of the constantly repeated experiences of humanity, reproducing similar mythical ideas

• universal and unconscious

• they emerge into the conscience as images and behavior

• they show up in myth, folklore, dreams, literature

• character, plot, image archetypes (e.g. a wise old man character)

2/6/24 - Fairy Tale Elements

• folk v. childhood

• family resemblances

• the fantasy code