The course will also examine the role literature plays in shaping culture. This course will explore the genres of oral literature as they have occurred in diverse cultures such as those in the Middle East and early Europe as they relate to Pacific narratives. Lectures and reading assignments will demonstrate how oral narrative forms represent, define and reinforce cultural values and beliefs. Individual student research topics, presented orally to the class, will broaden the scope while encouraging students to develop independent scholarship and research in areas of their particular interests. Students will also be asked to contribute some original research by collecting from informants or recounting from their own memories.
Appropriate materials are tales, legends, songs, superstitions, jokes, riddles or oral history.
They will share such materials with the class. EN 213 is offered as an elective for the cultural enrichment of English majors who wish to expand their understanding of oral literature and to other students who wish to know about the unwritten history and cultural background of the Pacific area and how certain basic themes relate to narratives from around the world. All students will benefit from the transdisciplinary and transcultural approach whereby learning in fields such as history, anthropology, linguistics, literature, mythology and psychology are integrated, showing the value of approaching human concerns holistically. Students are expected to know how to do research and be able to speak and write analytically. In addition to lecture and class discussion the class requires two oral presentation by students on a stated topic, oral presentation of some materials from their collection and one written research paper of 1500 words.