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Syllabus for “Animal Transformations” Project
2nd Cycle, Thursdays 2nd Split (10:45 - 12:05)
Teacher:
E-mail:
Phone:
Class Wiki:
Edith McCrea
[email protected]
(607) 273-5719 (before 9 p.m.)
http://lacsanimaltransformations.wikispaces.com/
Class 1 (11/18):
Introduction. Relationship between humans and (other) animals. Article:
“Stone Age Man’s terrors still stalk modern nightmares.” Rise of
civilizations in the Ancient Near East. Selections from The Epic of
Gilgamesh, An English Version with an Introduction, N.K. Sanders.
Native Americans. “Kana’ti and Selu: The Origin of Game and Corn,”
from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney.
Class 2 (12/2):
Bears. Greek mythology. “Callisto” from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
“Tales of Artemis” from C. Kerenyi’s The Gods of the Greeks.
Scandinavia. H.R. Ellis Davidson, “Shape changing in the Old Norse
Sagas,” from Werewolves in Western Culture. “Origin of the Bear: The
Bear Songs” and “The Bear Man” from Mooney’s Myths of the Cherokee.
Class 3 (12/9):
Good Wolf/Bad Wolf. Selections from Barry Lopez’ Of Wolves and Men.
Selection from Carlo Ginzberg’s The Night Battles. Giraldus Cambrensis,
“Of the Prodigies of Our Times, and First of an Wolf Which Conversed
with an Priest.” Sabine Baring-Gould, “A Chapter of Horrors” from The
Book of Werewolves.
Class 4 (12/16):
Werewolves, continued. Look at website summarizing plots of various
werewolf movies. Watch werewolf movie or TV show episode
(“Buffy”?). Talk about possible final project topics.
Class 5 (12/23):
Selkies (seal-people). Selections from Rosalie K. Fry’s The Secret of the
Ron Mor Skerry and David Thomson’s The People of the Sea. “The Child
from the Sea” from Folktales of Ireland, Sean O’Sullivan, ed. Watch
movie, “The Secret of Roan Inish.”
Class 6 (1/6):
Selkies, continued. Selections from Thomson’s The People of the Sea and
Duncan Williamson’s Tales of the Seal People.
Class 7 (1/13):
Botos (Amazon River dolphins). Selections from Candace Slater’s Dance
of the Dolphins. Watch part/all of movie “Where the River Runs Black”
and/or movie “The Dolphin”?
Class 8 (1/20):
Conclusion. Discussion of why animal-transformation stories continue to
be important and popular. Share projects? Watch movie (“Cat People”)?