Myth Crit-- I Think I Get It

Hero's Journey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I just read the handout on myth criticism (it's on our Blackboard page now, guys), and so I thought this would be a good time to do my next posting, which is supposed to be me explaining my critical model.  Here goes nothing.

Myth criticism is centered around patterns of elements in stories (or poetry, or any kind of art) that are also found in myths.  After reading through the quest structure, it seems pretty obvious to me that this model makes a lot of sense, in that you really can see the quest turning up everywhere.  And, the quest is the hero's journey, right?  So, it's also easy to see how the hero archetype works.  And right there I'm thinking that I now have enough to go on to another posting, because it looks like my first thoughts about LOTR might work okay for this approach.

Related articles

• IF: Myth and the Hero Cycle (artandtheeveryday.wordpress.com)
• Words for a Wednesday, November 28, 2012: Myth, Magic and Mystery (onthewingsofthehummingbird.com)
• The Hero's Journey - A Lesson in Writing Myths (freetech4teachers.com)