University of Maryland Humanities Greek culture & Myths Research Paper
Stage 3: Interpretation Paper
The topic can be any chosen myth and how the narratives of the myth relate to it.
The paper should address the relationship between your chosen topic and the narratives that relate to it and shape its meaning.
Your paper should include the following:
- An introduction which introduces your topic (activity, place, artifact or cultural production) and your approach to analyzing its underlying narratives.
- A summary of what you learned or observed about your topic and its underlying myths.
- An analysis using one of the methodological approaches we have covered throughout the semester to show how myth and your topic interact and connect. Examples of what is expected could include:
- Showing how an initiation ritual and its underlying myths connect within the cultural context of the ritual and then discuss how Victor Turner’s concept of communitas in that ritual helps uphold societal norms of that culture.
- Examining a Greek statue of Venus, her myths, and how both can represent an archetype that expresses specific values about womanhood in Greek culture and womanhood in the collective unconscious, as per Carl Jung’s ideas.
- Discussing a sacred place, its underlying myths, and how historical processes and social power within this site’s culture play a role in the construction of its significance, in accordance with Johnathan Z. Smith’s ideas.
