Lit127: Mythology & Folk Literature

July 9, 2012

Open Forum

Quiz

3. Is Zoroastrianism monotheistic, polytheistic, or animistic?

Quiz

2. Zoroastrianism, created by the prophet Zoroaster, comes from what place or culture?

Quiz

3. How does a “Manichean” view of the world explain or organize all the different parts of creation?

4. What does the word root PROTO mean, and what is proto-science?

Quiz

5. What is the basic idea of postcolonialism?

Bonus

Why do we look up at the sky when we are asking questions?

PostcolonialismPost-colonial theory addresses the identity, gender, race, racism and ethnicity, and their interactions in the development of a post-colonial society, and of a post-colonial national identity; of how a colonized people’s cultural knowledge was used against them, in service of the colonizer’s interests; and of how knowledge about the world is generated under specific socio-economic relations, between the powerful and the powerless. Identity politics comprise the perspectives of the colonial subjects, his and her creative resistance to the colonizer’s culture; and how that resistance psychologically complicated the imperial-colony project for the European man and woman. Hence, among the cultural media to aid colonisation was the anti-conquest narrative genre, which produced colonial literature that ideologically legitimated the imperial domination of a people.

The critical nature of postcolonial theory entails destabilizing Western ways of thinking, therefore creating space for the subaltern, or marginalized groups, to speak and produce alternatives to dominant discourse. Often, the term postcolonialism is taken literally, to mean the period of time after colonialism. This, however, is problematic because the ‘once-colonized world’ is full of “contradictions, of half-finished processes, of confusions, of hybridity, and liminalities”.[2] In other words, it is important to accept the plural nature of the word postcolonialism, as it does not simply refer to the period after the colonial era.

Open Forum on Contemporary Myth

Today, many people do not believe in gods and goddesses, but they still believe in myths. For these people, who is the modern day God?

Is Science a modern day God? Can science make a mythology?

Can people like movie stars, singers, and politicians be mythmakers? Examples?

In ancient times, myths were written on scrolls and stone tablets and holy books. What is the holy book of contemporary humanity that holds our myths?

Do you believe that Australia is a real place? Why or how?

If enough people (friends, family, teachers) tell you some belief or some historical event, but don’t give you any proof about it, do you believe it? Why?