City Smarts Electives: Myths, Ancient and Modern

Tuesdays: 4 - 5 PM

Instructor: Kevin McKeown

Course Description:

As people of the modern world, it is easy for us to think about mythology as nothing more than the fantastical attempts by ancient people who lacked science to describe the world, or as stories exaggerating the adventures and deeds of their ancestors. But viewing mythology with this modern, critical lens overlooks the most important part of myths: they are stories, created to entertain, or to teach. Myths and legends are the ancestors of our novels, movies, TV shows, comic books, and even video games.

In this course, we will explore ancient mythology, and analyze it like we would any other piece of literature or media we encounter in our everyday lives. Students will learn how to engage with stories, ancient and modern, through their narrative elements, and build skills to analyze stories from different eras through archetypes and tropes. The ultimate goal will be for each student to find a modern “myth” to analyze and relate to the ancient myths we will read during the course.  

Course Objectives:

1. Familiarize students with the mythological world of Ancient Greece and Rome through reading excerpts from the works of classical authors such as Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, and Ovid.

2. To build a vocabulary of literary elements, archetypes, and tropes through which students can analyze, compare, and contrast the stories of the ancient and modern world.

3. Teach students how to explore the goals of different myths and stories: Do they entertain? Do they explain? Provide a moral, or lesson?

4. Explore how the perspective of different authors or treatments of the same story (or type of story) can change our experience as readers or spectators. Are heroes always heroes, and villains always villains? 

Materials:

All assigned materials will be provided, including the texts, informational and historical documents, and instructional materials. Students will be expected to read the relevant texts and background documents before each class, where they will then be asked to engage with the readings alongside new materials. Students will receive each week’s readings at the end of the prior week’s class.

Course Readings will be based on the following sources:

• Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days

• Homeric Hymns

• Ovid’s Metamorphoses

• Apollodorus’ Library and Argonautica

• Robert Grave’s The Greek Myths

Course Policies

• If a student misses one of the course dates, they can reach out to me directly to catch up on what they missed, and to access the necessary materials.

• Students are expected to be respectful of each other during class discussions.

Course Schedule

Week 1: Introductions to the World of Mythology, and to the Basic Literary Elements

1. MYTHS:

   1. Creation of the World, the Titans, and the First Olympians

   2. The Later Olympians:

      1. Artemis and Apollo

      2. Hermes 

      3. Dionysus 

2. -Introduction to Central Literary Elements:

   1. Character

   2. Plot/Conflict

   3. Setting

   4. Theme

   5. Point of View

   6. Tone

3. -Introduction to Myth categories, Archetypes, Tropes

Week 2: Myths about the Early Days of Human Civilization

1. MYTHS:

   1. Prometheus, the Creation of Humans and the Gift of Fire 

   2. Pandora and her box

   3. Deucalion and the Flood 

   4. The Descendants of Deucalion 

2. LITERARY ELEMENTS OF FOCUS:

   1. Types of Characters

   2. Types of Conflicts

Week 3: Cultural and Foundational Myths

1. MYTHS:

   1. Demeter, Persephone, and the Eleusinian Mysteries 

   2. Apollo and Delphi 

   3. Cadmus and Thebes 

2. LITERARY ELEMENTS OF FOCUS:

   1. Setting

   2. Theme

Week 4: Heroics: Monsters, Challenges, and Magical Prizes

1. MYTHS:

   1. Zeus and Typhon 

   2. Hercules

   3. Jason and the Argonauts

   4. Perseus

2. LITERARY ELEMENTS OF FOCUS:

   1. Point of View

   2. Tone

Week 5: Love and Tragedy

1. MYTHS:

   1. Echo and Narcissus

   2. Daedalus and Icarus

   3. Orpheus and Eurydice

   4. Jason and Medea

2. LITERARY COMPARISONS:

   1. Different Treatments of Myths and Tropes

City Smarts Electives: The Not So Short Analysis of Short Films

Wednesdays: 4 - 5 PM

Instructor: Jennifer Gagliardi

Course Description: 

When we consider a movie, we often think in terms of big blocks of time, with 90 minutes as the standard. However, the challenge of packing the same amount of story into 40 minutes or less can offer the same payoff as a feature length film. Some of the most celebrated directors have made short films both as springboards into feature length projects, and as artistic endeavors to spur creativity. In this course we will explore and analyze short films, learning key terminology that students can later apply to other types of cinema. Through a combination of film analysis and practical understanding of the short film market, students will learn how to “read” a short film. The class will culminate in a day where students become curators,  learning how to bring films together into a festival or series. 

Course Objectives:

1. To become engaged, critical, “close readers” of cinematic texts by showing students how to analyze a theme through the use of mise en scène, dialogue, and camerawork in cinema. 

2. Introducing students to film terminology that they can use to describe what they watch.

3. Discussing not only the art of film but also the distribution of movies, particularly the short film market. 

4. Considering how multiple types of film, including documentary, live action, and animation, achieve their goals in different ways while still telling a unified story.

Materials:

All materials will be provided, including short readings and links for screenings. For each class we will hold a zoom screening, and students will also be expected to screen a film on their own. All films will be free to access.

Course Policies

• If a student misses one of the course dates, they can reach out to me to catch up on what they missed and access the in-class screenings. 

• Students are expected to be respectful of each other during class discussions. 

• The films we are watching will sometimes contain strong language and some mature themes regarding war. If this is an issue, please contact the instructor. 

Schedule:

Week 1 -  Introduction and Characteristics of Short Films

• Why Short Films Are Still Thriving – The Atlantic Monthly

• Does the Cinema Need Short Films? – The New Yorker

• In Class Screening of La Femme et le TGV

Week 2 – Focus on Live Action

• Film Homework for week 2: Screen Stutterer

• Interview with director of Butterlamp – Director’s Notes

• Summary of Stutterer – The New Yorker

• Discussion Topics: Dialogue doesn’t always tell the story, importance of music, 

• In Class screening of ButterLamp

Week 3 – Focus on Documentary

• Film Homework for week 3: Screen Earthrise

• Finding the Narrative Arc in Documentary Films

• Discussion topics: Interviews in films, how to choose a documentary subject, what makes a story “important”?

• In Class Screening of Positive Images

Week 4 – Focus on Animation

• Film Homework for week 4: Screen Fire in Cardboard City and Pearl

• Pearl, the first VR film Nominated for an Oscar – Mashable

• Interview with the Director of Min Borda – Stop Motion

• Discussion Topics: Behind the scenes animation is harder than it looks, How animation uses unique delivery to tell real stories. 

• In Class screening of Min Borda

Week 5 – Putting it all Together

• Film Homework for Week 5: Screen Joe’s Violin, Boogaloo and Graham, and Mend and Make Do

• Ron Diamond Interview – Animation World Network

• Curating Short Film Series’ – How to bring films together

• These three films have connecting threads, how could we potentially screen them together for a festival? We Will discuss how they work together, and how we would curate the series.