This module aims to help students to develop their critical thinking skills in relation to the study of mythology and apply this critical thinking to film and serial drama

 On completion of the module a student should be able to:
 Identify a range of approaches to the study of mythology and use them to critically engage with scholarly treatments of  mythic material (including text and film).

There wll be 30 hours of classroom teaching and an individual meeting with the tutor to receive feedback on a draft essay. 

 Students will be given opportunities to view some film in the classroom and will have set readings for class discussion in addition to lectures outlining core debates and themes.

 Intellectual Skills:

Evaluate a range of scholarly approaches to a single theme or cultural product.

Analyse and evaluate critical scholarly 

Explore ways in which mythology has been utilized by psychological theorists, including Freud, Jung, and feminist psychological theorists.

Explore ways in which psychological and social theories have been applied to film.

Develop and make connections between ideas and skills introduced in other modules.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

 To be able to recognize and analyse myth as it is expressed across a number of religious traditions and mediums, including texts, art, and performance.

 Compare and contrast the treatment of supernatural characters and phenomena in contemporary film with those found in scholarly accounts of indigenous practices and mythology (for example from the anthropology of religion).

 Transferable Skills:

 Evaluate written and visual sources

Engage in informed verbal debate

Use the library facilities to research a topic in some depth

Produce extended pieces of writing that are well structured and expressed

The portfolio assessment will include two essays @ 2,000 words each.

 This module gives students the opportunity to explore approaches to the study of mythology and apply their understanding to analyses of contemporary film and serial drama.  Key areas to be covered will include the ways in which psychologists have used myth to theorize about the nature of the person and how psychological theory has been used, in turn to analyse contemporary culture.  Different scholarly understandings of the relationship between myth, ritual, altered states of consciousness, and performance will be explored, giving students the opportunity to develop proficiency in a range of  religious studies theories and methodologies and their potential application to the study of film.

Baudrillard, J. (1998) ‘Simulcra and simulations’ in Poster, M. (ed) Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Bulkeley, K. (2003) ‘Dreaming and the cinema of David Lynch’ Dreaming, vol.13, no.1, pp.49-60

Clark, L.S. (2007) ‘Why study popular culture: or how to build a case for your thesis in a religious studies or theology department’ in Lynch, G. (ed) Between Sacred and Profane: Researching Religion and Popular Culture.  London: I.B.Tauris.

Creed, B. (1993) The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. Abindon & New York: Routledge.

Csapo, E. (2005) Theories of Mythology. Oxford: Blackwell.

Ellis, C.S. (1995) ‘With eyes uplifted: space aliens as sky gods’ in Martin, J.W. & Oswalt, C.E. Screening the Sacred: Religion, Myth and Ideology in popular American Film. Colorado: Westview Press.

Frazer, J.G. (2009 [1890]) The Golden Bough. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Freud, S. (1953-1974) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press.

Garber, M. & Vickers, N. J. (eds) (2003) The Medusa Reader.  New York & London: Routledge.

Hockley, L. (2001) Cinematic Projections: the analytical psychology of C.J.Jung and film theory. Luton: University of Luton Press.

Jung, C.J. (1978 [1958]) Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (trans. R.F.C.Hull) Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Kristeva, J. (1982)  Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York: Columbia University Press.

Lebeau, V. (2001) Psychoanalysis and Cinema: The Play of Shadows. London & New York: Wallflower.

Plate, S.B. (2008) Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-creation of the World. Wiltshire: Cromwell Press.

Wilson, E.G. (2006) Secret Cinema: Gnostic Vision in Film. New York & London: Continuum