The theme this week is the interpretation of myth: what ways have thinkers devised to answer essentialist questions about myth? In class, we will discuss a variety of interpretative strategies. In your preparation for class, I would like you to focus on Freud and Jung.

Wednesday: focus on Freud

(a) If you wrote your paper on Freud, read at least one other paper by a classmate (the paper drafts will be posted on the class web page by late Monday afternoon). Be prepared to discuss both the myth used in your own paper, and the myth used by a classmate, as an example of the application of Freudian interpretation to myth.

(b) If you did not write your paper on Freud, read through the items on reserve, and come to class prepared to discuss in what ways a Freudian interpretation of myth does, or does not, make sense.

• Freud, Lecture XXXI: Dissection of the Psychical personality, from his New Introductory Lectures.
• Freud, Lecture XXIII: The Paths to the Formation of Symptoms.
• Freud, Excerpt from The Interpretation of Dreams.

Friday: focus on Jung

(a) If you wrote your paper on Jung, read at least one other paper by a classmate (the paper drafts will be posted on the class web page by late Monday afternoon). Be prepared to discuss both the myth used in your own paper, and the myth used by a classmate, as an example of the application of Jungian interpretation to myth.

(b) If you did not write your paper on Jung, read through the items on reserve, and come to class prepared to discuss in what ways a Jungian interpretation of myth does, or does not, make sense.

• Storr, "Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious" from C. G. Jung.
• Jung, "The Psychology of the Child Archetype" from Essays on a Science of Mythology.