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Unit 1: Ancient Worlds (2 parts: Origins/traditions and Myths/Folktales/Fables)

What can other cultures teach us about our own culture? How do we borrow from other cultures? How are we influenced by other cultures and how do we influence others?

3000 BC-1400 AD The epic Creation stories Myths Folktales Trickster tales and trickster narratives

Genre/period

Oral Tradition/storytelling The power of language Universal truths of human nature Civilization as a structure The journey Honor and truth Heroic codes (Gilgamesh) Value systems Use of language Transformation/transformative thinking

Focus/Big ideas

Ancient Worlds C. 3000 BC Sumerian civilization begins C. 29000 BC Egypt ruler joins upper and lower

Egypt C. 1792-59 BC Mesopotamia’s King Hammurabi C. 330 BC Alexander the Great conquers

Persian Empire Ancient Greece and Rome

700s BC Greece city state emerged (probable time of Homer)

753 BC Rome is founded 490-479 BC Greco-Persian Wars 30 BC Jesus of Nazareth crucified in Rome 476 BC Western Roman Empire falls

Historical perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TKbIidbyhk&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Did you Know??

What do you see?

Customs? Beliefs? Language? Dress?

What is your definition of CULTURE?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57KW6RO8Rcs

Video

Merriam Webster says culture is the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education

Live Science says culture is the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.

We will use a combination of these for our purposes…

Culture

Multicultural myths provide a “recurrence of themes, archetypes, and motifs unique to cultural signatures or influences of each culture on its myths”

Archetype: the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.

Motif: a usually recurring subject, theme, idea, etc., especially in a literary, artistic, or musical work; a distinctive and recurring form, shape, figure, etc.,

Archetypes and Motifs

http://www.slideshare.net/lisakeane/archetypal-themes

Hero Obstacle Quest Death and Rebirth Initiation OutcastCommon archetypal

themes

Motifs are not always something you can see and touch. For example, such abstract emotions and ideas as a power struggle between characters.

Symbols- when symbols are recurring, they become a motif!

Themes – for example, the journey theme. Every character in the story goes on a journey of some sort, so this recurring theme is also a motif.

Common motifs in literature

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We will take more notes on that later…

Part 1 Creation myths/stories from other cultures Native American creation stories Trickster tales (Brer Rabbit)

Part 2 Epic of Gilgamesh (Sumerian epic)- battle

and flood depiction David and Goliath: the battle (from the

Bible) Noah and the Flood (from the Bible) Greek mythology

What are we reading?

As we read pieces of literature from other cultures, we can learn more about our own culture.

In World Literature, we explore archetypes and motifs common to literature from around the world.

This first unit of study sets the origins and traditions. We also look at ancient cultures to see where certain archetypes and motifs originated.

Why?

ELACC9-10RL6: Analyze a particular POV or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the U.S, drawing on a wide reading of World Literature.

ELACC9-10RI9: Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historic and literary significance, including how they address related themes and concepts.

ELACC9-10L6: Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking and listening at the college and career readiness level.

Why?: The Standards

Telephone Form a circle around the room I will assign one student to whisper a

phrase to another student. He/she may only whisper the phrase ONCE.

That student whispers what they hear into the ear of the student to their right…and so on.

The last person will announce out-loud what message he/she got.

Let’s play a game!

How did things change as they are passed from person to person verbally? What accounts for these changes?

What would happen if he phrase was written on paper and passed person to person? Would the message change?

Folklore was originally passed down through generations verbally. Do you think that some of this folklore may have changed? The folklore that was passed down in a written form remains somewhat more consistent.

Discussion

A short narrative in prose, of unknown authorship, which has been transmitted orally; something have known authors.

The folk tale is a broad category that includes fables, fairy tales, legends, and myths.

“Folk” implies some group of people, who have something called “lore” which means a body of knowledge. So, it basically means a group of people with a common tradition or set of beliefs/knowledge.

Folk lore is common to all people and we can learn about other culture’s by reading theirs.

Folk Tale

Urban Legends Fairytales Ghost Stories Tall Tales

Folk Tales: Genres

The Nightingale The Seventh Sister How the Snake Got Poison Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh

Rabbit Cinderella Savannah Ghost Tales

Folk Tales: Examples

What is your piece of folk lore from your cultural heritage?

Folk Tales: A personal connection quick write

A myth of creation exists within all cultures in some way, shape, or form.

Each culture’s view of how the world came to be effects both the social and cultural beliefs that influence that culture’s ways of living.

Creation Myths

Creation Myths Activity