ENGL 508X: World Mythologies

Reflection Paper 1

Due June 15

Length: 3-4 pp (undergrads); 4-6 pp (grads)

Submit to www.turnitin.com before class on June 15

Analysis of a Cosmographical Myth

For this first adventure in reflection, choose one of the creation accounts we have read, excluding Genesis. Using the introduction to chapter 2 in Myth and Knowing as a guideline, break down and explicate this account, trying to answer the questions on p. 46 (or questions like those). Your analysis should be the basis for a thesis that says something like “The purpose of creation in the Vishnu Purana is to provide X for Y.” Don’t settle for a thesis that says, “Wow, here’s all the cool stuff in this myth,” but try to illustrate some kind of point about the function, purposes, origin, meanings, whatever, of the myth you’ve chosen. Would you call it an accretion myth, ex nihilo myth, combinations of strategies? The goal is to draw some conclusions about cosmographical myths by looking at how the culture is using this myth—we’ll assume that each culture believe its myth to be true, so you needn’t try to do anything to “prove” that case.

Make sure that your thesis is well supported by concrete evidence; you should be quoting as well as paraphrasing from both the original work and from any secondary research you use in developing your analysis. Start with the bibliography at the end of Ch. 2 of M&K as a starting place if you want to look up more about particular cultures or versions of a myth. But remember: the goal is for you to draw some conclusions, not to assemble a package of “what everybody else says” about the text you choose, so don’t turn this into a research paper.

Please consult your Prentice Hall Guides or the MLA Handbook to make sure your paper is documented correctly. Remember that MLA has recently updated its rules for citing online materials; heaven bless the Purdue OWL, which has a handy online update for all the rule changes. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/15/