ENGL 3150 - MYTHOLOGY
Course Syllabus
Course Information
ENGL 3150 — Mythology, Section A — CRN: 84188
Course Description
An introduction to the major characters, plots, and themes of mythological narratives. Prerequisite(s): A minimum grade of "C" in ENGL 1102.
Meeting Times
9:30 - 10:45 TR, 2239 Carroll Building
Course Dates
- Start date: 17 August 2020
- End date: 4 December 2020
- Drop/Add: 17-20 August 2020
- Last day to withdraw without academic penalty: 12 October 2020
Holidays
- 7 September — Labor Day
- 23-27 November — Thanksgiving Holiday
Learning Outcomes for the Course
Upon successful completion of this course, a student will be able to:
- Recognize and analyze the major characters, plots, and themes of mythological narratives.
- Situate and interpret these myths in their historical, cultural, and literary contexts.
- Create a well-developed and organized essay about mythology, using clear and precise prose and presenting a sustained argument.
Required Textbooks
To be purchased:Campbell, Joseph. Hero with a Thousand Faces. 3rd edition, Ingram, 2008. ISBN: 9781577315933.
Available on the D2L site:
Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch's Mythology.
Frazer, James George. The Golden Bough.
Hesiod. The Theogony. Translated and edited by Daniel Most.
The Illustrated Abridged Odyssey. Creators of Mythweb.
Junod, Tom. "Can You Say ... Hero?"
Magoulick, Mary. "What is Myth?"
Morford, Mark P.O., Robert J. Lenardon, and Michael Sham. "Ways of Looking at Myth."
Pellegrino, Joe. The English Major's Mythology Cheat Sheet
Zimmerman, Mary. Metamorphoses.
Instructor
Instructor
I'm Dr. Joe Pellegrino, an Associate Professor in the Literature department. I teach lots of different classes. Besides World Lit and Lit and the Humanities, I do many of our required courses for the major, like "Introduction to Literary Studies" and our Senior Seminar. I have also taught our literary theory courses. My specialties are Irish literature and postcolonial literature, so I end up doing classes that don't fit into the standard Brit Lit/American Lit model: Irish lit, African lit, etc. For instance, this semester I'm also teaching a course on mythology. Basically, if other people in my department can teach it, I don't teach it.
It seems like I went to school forever, and went to lots of different schools: Duquesne University, St, Louis University, Mannes College of Music, The New England Conservatory, and UNC-Chapel Hill, which is where I did my last degree. I've also taught at a lot of schools: Duquesne, UNC, Eastern Kentucky University, University of South Carolina-Upstate, Greenville Tech, Converse College, and here at GS. I've got some experience in online education; I was a University Director for the (short-lived) Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University, and have taught online classes for over 20 years now.
Professionally, I also edit two international journals, The Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies and The International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. I'm interested in a number of fields, but most of my publications are either on Irish studies, postcolonial lit, or teaching.
I have only one item on my bucket list: to see the Northern Lights. One day I'll get there, but in the meantime I'm raising two daughters, making heirloom furniture (pretty much a middle-aged guy cliché), keeping up with new technology, wishing I could spend more time doing music, and trying to keep my head above water.
Contact Information
- Email: jpellegrino@georgiasouthern.edu
- Phone: 912.478.5853
Office Hours
Given the nature of this hybrid class, I'll be available online at mutuallyy-agreed-upon times. My usual turnaround time for emails is 24 hours during the week, and 48 hours on the weekends.
Course Structure
Since this is a hybrid class, I'll be seeing each of you in person just once a week. So I have arranged our learning outcomes and course schedule by the week rather than by the class period. There will be some overlap between our Tuesday and Thursday meetings, but that will vary from week to week, so I'll expect you to attend one class meeting per week in person, and the other class meeting via Zoom.
Since we're splitting the class into two groups, we'll make this simple. If your last name begins with the letters A through M, you'll come to the f-t-f class in Carroll 2239 every Tuesday, and Zoom in to the class every Thursday. If your last name begins with the letters N through Z, you'll come to the Carroll classroom every Thursday and Zoom in to the class every Tuesday.
Zoom Discussions
Each f-t-f class period will be recorded through Zoom and posted to the course site. You may use these class discussions as review for your exams, clarification on your assignments, or considerations about the literary and thematic interpretations of each text.
Papers
You'll be writing two short papers in this class, and one longer researched paper. The two shorter papers ask you to construct contemporary myths and analyze contemporary heroes, while the researched paper asks you to analyze the influence of classical myth on a contemporary piece of fiction.
Exams
You'll have two exams, one halfway through the course and one at the end of the course. The first will be a combination of short answers and essays. The second will be two longer essays. In order to keep these fair for all of you, you'll take both exams through D2L. Exams are available from midnight to midnight on the dates noted in the schedule. You may take the exam at any time on the day that is it available. Once you open the first exam, you'll have ninety minutes to complete and submit it. Once you open the second exam you'll have two hours to complete it.
Contingency Planning
If, as I suspect, we move to a completely online structure, the course will be built up as a collection of weekly modules, each of which will contain relevant and varied multimedia material. The one constant will be a weekly podcast concerning th material we're covering that week.
Course Schedule with Activity Due Dates
A detailed course schedule is located at this URL: http://jpellegrino.com/teaching/ENGL3150/3150-Schedule.html.
This schedule details the material we are covering, the exam dates, and the due dates for your papers.
CLASS POLICIES
Writing Proficiency
If you need additional work on the surface features of your writing I will require you to schedule sessions at the Writing Center in order to pass the course. If you're unable to get to campus in order to meet with the Writing Center staff, you'll have to provide documentation that you availed yourself of some other tutoring, editing, or proofreading service.
Academic Integrity
I expect that you will conduct yourself within the guidelines of the Honor System. All academic work should be completed with the high level of honesty and integrity that this University demands.
I do not tolerate academic dishonesty. Beyond the moral implications, I find it insulting. All instances of plagiarism will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. Any instance will result in an F in the course and possibly further sanctions. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own without giving them credit. "Someone else" is defined as anyone other than you: another student, a friend, relative, a source on the Internet, articles or books. And “work” is defined as ideas as well as language. So taking someone else's ideas and putting them in your own words—or using someone else's words to express your ideas—is plagiarism. And, in the case of friends and family, it doesn't matter if they give you permission.
A note about group work: I encourage you to read and discuss these texts together outside of class. It is, in fact, the core of our endeavor, to hone our own ideas on these texts through discussions with others. You should also discuss your writing with your classmates, as hearing a number of ideas will help you create your own. However, this does not mean that you should write your papers as a group. While discussion is obviously a group activity, writing is a solitary one, and should be treated as such. Any attempt to subvert this will be an instance of academic dishonesty.
Here is how the University defines Academic Dishonesty (from the Student Conduct Code):
CHEATING
- submitting material that is not yours as part of your course performance;
- using information or devices that are not allowed by the faculty;
- obtaining and/or using unauthorized materials;
- fabricating information, research, and/or results;
- violating procedures prescribed to protect the integrity of an assignment, test, or other evaluation;
- collaborating with others on assignments without the faculty's consent;
- cooperating with and/or helping another student to cheat;
- demonstrating any other forms of dishonest behavior.
PLAGIARISM
- directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them;
- using sources of information (published or unpublished) without identifying them;
- paraphrasing materials or ideas without identifying the source;
- Self-plagiarism: re-submitting work previously submitted without explicit approval from the instructor;
- unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic material.
Should you wish to pursue a case of academic dishonesty through the Office of Student Conduct, I will speak at your hearing and send a copy of this syllabus along with the documents in question to the Hearing Officer, so a plea of ignorance or non-malicious intent on your part will not be valid.
Course Work
All electronically-submitted assignments will be placed in the appropriate dropbox section or discussion forum of the Learning Management System (Folio).
I DO NOT ACCEPT LATE ASSIGNMENTS. NO EXCEPTIONS, NO EXCUSES. A late assignment is any work that is not turned in during the class period in which it is due. This means that you must anticipate any problems that will occur. In other words, a computer / printer / drive / car / arm being broken at the last minute is not an excuse. To avoid last-minute catastrophes (which always occur) DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO DO YOUR WORK.
Illness
I want you to take appropriate precautions for your health as well as the well-being of your classmates. If you become ill during the term, please contact me immediately. We will work through what you will need to do, to either continue working in class or make up work that might have been missed during your absence. If you have an illness that would result in an extended absence, you will need to contact the Dean of Students office. In the event of serious illness, injury, or extenuating circumstances, the DOS office will notify professors at your request.
If you need to self-report either a confirmed or suspected positive COVID-19 diagnosis, have received self-quarantine requirements, or have symptoms with pending test results, please complete the CARES Center COVID-19 self-reporting form (through the MyGeorgiaSouthern portal under "COVID-19 Information & Resources"). You may also reach the CARES Center by using the MyGS mobile app, calling 912-478-CARE (M-F 8am-5pm), or emailing covidsupport@georgiasouthern.edu. The CARES Center should not be used for medical advice. If you need medical advice, you need to call your health provider or 911.
Face Coverings
Georgia Southern, along with other University System of Georgia (USG) institutions, requires all faculty, staff, students, and visitors to wear an appropriate face covering while inside campus facilities/buildings where six-feet social distancing may not always be possible; this includes classroom spaces. Use of face coverings will be in addition to, rather than a substitute for, social distancing. Anyone not using a face covering when required will be asked to wear one or must leave the area. Repeated refusal to comply with the requirement may result in discipline through the Student Code of Conduct. However, reasonable accommodations may be made for those who are unable to wear a face covering for documented health reasons.
Rubric
Essay Rubric
Your papers for this class will be evaluated according to this rubric:
| ENGL 3150 ESSAY RUBRIC | ||
| GRADE | CONTENT | FORM |
| A |
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| B |
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| C |
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| D |
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| F |
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Questions I ask while grading
For each sentence in your paper, I ask the following questions:
- What are you saying? At a basic level, I’m trying to decode their meaning. If I cannot understand what you’re trying to say, everything that follows after this is problematic. If your sentence is confused, convoluted, or contradictory, you make it difficult, or even impossible, for me to answer this basic question.
- Is what you’re saying accurate? Does this sentence demonstrate that you understand the text or the critic you’re addressing? For instance, if you’re summarizing someone else’s argument, I need to assess if you’re being true to the original author's intent. In your response, I’m assessing your evidence and examples.
- Is what you’re saying well-expressed grammatically and mechanically? This assumes that your grammar and mechanics aren’t so bad that I’ve been stopped back up at Question #1.
- Does the writing have appropriate flow, in that each idea links up with the one previously and the one to follow in a way that meets audience needs, attitudes, and knowledge?
If I can answer all four of these questions positively for every sentence, you’re doing well. But when the answer is no, complications ensue. If I can’t understand what you’re saying, I have no way to engage with your ideas, and so I have additional questions.:
- Do you not understand the original text you’re addressing?
- Do you understand the original text, but your writing leaves a gap between that understanding and what is written on the page?
Prompts for Your Papers
Short Paper 1: Why we need myths
One of the primary functions of myths is to allegorically explain pre-existing or natural phenomena. Max Muller suggests that myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature and gradually came to be interpreted literally. For example, a poetic description of the sea as "raging" was eventually taken literally and the sea was then thought of as a raging god.
The "Unexplained Phenomena" document in D2L lgives brief descriptions of a number of contemporary physical occurrences that have yet to be satisfactorily explained. Your task is to offer a mythological explanation of one of these phenomena. You should begin with a quick web search to familiarize yourself with the current understanding of these phenomena. You'll see that there is no consensus as to the cause of most of these, leaving the interpretive field open for a number of strange and wonderful (and crazy and unsettling) ideas. You'll venture into this field by offering your own mythological understanding of the phenomenon you choose.
You must flesh out your contemporary myth with at least three of the following elements:
- Struggles for power and/or succession
- Fate and/or prophecy
- Interactions between humans and supernatural or nonhuman characters
- A quest or completion of a task
- A moral exemplum
- The presence of magic or something counter-factual
- A metamorphosis
- A reflection of contemporary cultural customs, values, and/or beliefs
You should be able to offer a well-developed mythological explanation in 500 to 750 words.
Short Paper #2: What Makes a Hero?
You've tried your hand at writing a myth as an explanation of an unexplained phenomenon, so this prompt looks at a different function for myths. You'll begin by reading Tom Junod's article, "Can You Say . . . Hero?" and then offer an analysis of the real-life person, Fred Rogers, to determine if he is or is not what you would call a "hero."
This paper asks you to consider what contemporary culture considers to be "heroic," then decide if Mr. Rogers either performs these actions or possesses those characteristics. Generally, heroes can be considered the embodiment of the ideals of the culture in which they were created. Historical events and the social conditions of different cultures cause different attributes to become valued in leaders. These cultural values are usually reflected in both the actions and motivations of a hero.
A superior response to this prompt will consider the actions and personality traits that both contrbute to and detract from your conclusion that Mr. rogers either is or isn't a hero. The traits and actions that support your conclusion should be illustrated with eexamples from the article, and those that do not contribute to your conclusion must be anticipated and addressed within your argument.
You should be able to make a solid, supported argument within 500 to 750 words.
Researched Paper: Writers Using Myths
You’ll end the semester with a substantial research paper of at least 2000 words (not including your Works Cited page, notes, or header), informed by at least five secondary sources. Your sources should all address the use of mythology within the text; including sources that are tangential to your point will significantly weaken your argument (and thus your grade). You’ll use MLA 8 style in formatting and in your citations. Errors in formatting will result in the return of your paper for immediate corrections (by 5:00 pm on November 26) and the reduction of one letter grade. You’ll produce multiple drafts of this paper, and will have each draft edited by your peers, in class, before it is evaluated by me. A draft is a document that is at least 80% completed, so that means at least 9 full pages of text (not notes, not reminders, not an outline) will be due on November 12. A revised draft (Draft 2) means that all suggestions from the Peer Editing sessions are addressed.
For this paper, you’ll choose a literary work in any genre and explain how the classical, Norse, Egyptian, Arthurian, or African mythological references and allusions within it serve to reinforce the thematic concerns of that work. Your paper will explain the significance of those allusions and explicate the myths to which they refer. This will be done in service of your argument, which will prove that these allusions are at once subtle and engaging, and add to the depth and complexity of the theme.
Obviously, works that center on mythology itself are off the table, so you can’t write on Percy Jackson, or anything by Rick Riordan and his ilk, for that matter. Other than that one caveat (and I reserve the right to create others at a later date, especially if you propose something facile and fawning about Harry Potter), you can choose any genre or time period for your initial work. Your choice of texts to write on must be approved, and you’ll submit constituent parts of your project throughout the semester.
This assignment does not ask for you to write a character-based analysis, producing something like “Leopold Bloom is Joyce’s version of Ulysses.” Character analyses are too vague to be useful and too glib to be meaningful. That low-hanging fruit is a bit too obvious. What you need here, rather, is something like the following:
In the Hades chapter of Ulysses, Joyce repeatedly uses the terms “the holy fields” and “the dismal fields.” On the literal level, Bloom is thinking of Glasnevin Cemetery, but these also refer, respectively, to the Elysian Fields and Tartarus. Since the chapter itself is concerned with Paddy Dignam’s death and burial, and Bloom (although more familiar with Hebraic than Hellenistic tradition) is sunk into a reverie that is like a memento mori, these phrases make a connection not between Bloom and Odysseus, which is the usual pairing, but with Bloom and Aeneas, who visits both of these places in Book VI of the Aeneid.
You may think that choosing a longer work will give you more fodder for your analysis, but it will also mean that there is much more ground to cover. Multi-volume works would be a seriously bad choice. A shorter work with multiple allusions or references, one that has been considered by a number of critics, may be a better choice.
Comments on your papers and your grade on each paper will be available to you through the Grademark view in the TurnItIn section (click on your TurnItIn score to access this).
Your TurnItIn Score
After you submit your paper and TurnItIn has completed its analysis, you are able to see your TurnItIn Originality Score. In general, lower numbers are better here, unless you're quoting a lot of material from the text. Your score will also have a color attached to it. If the color you see is anything other than green, check your paper again to see that you have cited all your sources corretly. If you have, then you're good. If you haven't, then you can revise your paper and resubmit it. I will evaluate only the most recent version of your paper in the dropbox, but you can submit as many versions of it as you feel necessary.
How to view your marked papers in the Grademark View:
- Click on the colored section that has a percentage within it next to your paper title under the "TurnItIn Score" heading. This will take you to the TurnItIn suite.
- Once your paper loads, click on the icon at the top of the array of icons to the right of your paper. This will allow you to view multiple layers with your paper.
- In the list that flies out from the right, click on all three layers: Grading, Similarity, and e-rater.
- Double-click on any blue box in your paper to see my comment attached to that box.
- Double-click on any number in your paper to see the match that TurnItIn connected with the passage it highlighted.
- Double-click on any purple comment in your paper to see the machine-scored grammar corrections and access the handbook available to you.
Evaluation
| Paper 1 | 12.5% |
| Paper 2 | 17.5% |
| Researched Paper | 30% |
| Exam 1 | 15% |
| Exam 2 | 15% |
| Participation | 10% |
| TOTAL | 100% |
Accessibility Accommodation
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this course will honor requests for reasonable accommodations made by individuals with disabilities or demonstrating appropriate need for learning environment adjustments. Students must self-disclose their disability to the Student Accessibility Resource Center (SARC) before academic accommodations can be implemented.
Students requesting alternative educational arrangements because of COVID-19 must submit a completed COVID-19 Alternative Educational Arrangement Request Form to the SARC office.
For additional information, please call the SARC office at (912) 478-1566 on the Statesboro campus, or at (912) 344-2572 on the Armstrong and Liberty campuses.