CMLT 113 - Myth, Legend, and Folklore of Asia

Why do we read myths, legends, and folklore? When do we usually read such tales? And how are these tales imparted to us? Do you remember the tales you were told as a young child? Can you recall the lessons about life that you were supposed to cull from these stories? Now as an adult, with a more mature eye, you can probably see that these myths, legends, and folklore that often seem to be for entertainment purposes can also have a social agenda. What about the tales that come from Asia? Are the underlying premises of tales from Asian cultures the same as those from Anglo-European traditions? In this class, through assigned literary readings, we will travel to Japan, China, Korea, India, and ancient Mesopotamia to see how people of these areas have been shaped by the myths, legends, and folklore of their respective cultures. The goal of the class will be to see if there is a universal theme to all of these texts. Thus are we as human beings ultimately the same as Carl Jung posits with his idea of archetypes? Or are there cultural differences in the way people from different countries perceive the world? How do ideas of gender roles, social order, national identity, and morality get subtly transmitted in these tales? Moreover, we will look at the various ways in which such tales get transmitted. By studying the myths, legends, and folklore of other cultures, we will have a better understanding of how the worldviews of people who live in distant lands, as well as our own worldview, are shaped by supposed entertainment tales. Some of the readings will include one of the earliest extant epics Gilgamesh, as well as tales from China, Japan, and Korea, Japan’s war epic The Tale of the Heike, and India’s The Ramayana. (Group III)