By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Week 1:

• Evaluate Campbell’s theoretical approaches to myth, including the hermeneutics of depth psychology.

• Evaluate Campbell’s approach to multicultural, ethnic, gender, and racial diversity.

• Develop a critical understanding of the trajectory and influence of Campbell’s life and work.

Week 2:

• Discuss Campbell’s approach to myth through the lens of modernism.

• Discuss the influence of psychology on Cambell’s work on mythology.

Week 3:

• Describe how Campbell used Jung’s concept of archetypes as a fundamental method of describing myths.

• Analyze at a basic level both literary/filmic and personal stories to determine some archetypes that appear in them.

Week 4:

• Develop an understanding of Joseph Campbell’s personal creativity.

• Evaluate Campbell’s efforts to inspire creativity in others.

Week 5:

• Develop a critical understanding of Arthurian and Grail myths from the Middle Ages to Postmodernism.

• Recognize key themes, mythic motifs, and archetypal patterns.

Week 6:

• Develop an understanding of Joseph Campbell’s views about fairy tales in conversation with contemporary fairy tale studies (also called wonder tale studies).

• Apply Campbell’s four functions of myth to the analysis of fairy tale images.

Week 7:

• Develop an understanding of Campbell’s distinction between the denotative sign and the connotative metaphor, and how it reframes the interpretation of religious and mythic imagery.
• Apply Campbell’s correspondence between outer cosmos and inner psyche to read the imagery of the space age — and contemporary science fiction — as living metaphor rather than literal fact.

Week 8:

• Compare Campbell’s views on the overarching themes of The Iliad and The Odyssey.

• Identify at a basic level how both literary/filmic and personal imbalance in pairs of opposites operates just as in Homer’s works.

Week 9:

• Evaluate Campbell’s theoretical approach to myth with intentional emphasis on the Hero’s Journey model.

• Develop a critical understanding of significant models that followed Campbell’s and understand how these models amplified and expanded Campbell’s model.

Week 10:

• Reimagine Campbell’s work and thought in the context of its relevance to contemporary life using critical theory, particularly metamodernism, as a method to amplify and expand Campbell’s work and reconnect to the enduringly salient features of his work.

Week 11:

• Evaluate Campbell’s theory of the four functions of myth with emphasis on the pedagogical and psychological aspects of myth.

• Utilize Campbell’s approach as a basis for interpreting the mythic significance of current experience and constructing a personal mythology.

Week 12:

• Evaluate Joseph Campbell’s work through a multidisciplinary approach based on the concepts presented throughout the course.

• Develop an understanding of possibilities around the present and future of Campbellian studies.