At the beginning of class today, we reviewed the material we covered last class with respect to the Samson stories. This lead us back to the prompt for the Regina Spektor song. In class, we discussed some of the significant differences between the song and the traditional telling found in The Bible and even the song version by Reverend Gary Davis.
I explained the role of the song as having the following significance:
1 - It is an interesting reflection of how cultural stories/myths/legends are told and re-told over time by different people. Being aware of the deeper stories enhances our appreciation of the newer works (like Spektor's song "Samson").
2 - In this version of the song, Spektor has changed the story and is claiming that somewhere deeper in the story "lies [the] truth" (3). As we progress through our study of mythology, it's worth thinking that while some of these stories may seem too fanciful to have ever been true, others may have real truth buried within them. Over time, people have heaped other details into the story that might not be true. We can think of this as "poetic truth" or what feels real or important even if it is not factually true. These sorts of truth are what compel people to tell these stories over and over again.
As an example of this poetic truth, we could imagine that maybe, just maybe, there was once a guy named "Samson" and he was really tough, like a linebacker, and maybe a great warrior. Maybe this guy got interested in a woman named Delilah and he stopped fighting or lost a few fights because his mind was elsewhere. Over time the story got added to and changed until it became just this fantastic story to tell that felt right and that people identified with even if it didn't hold with things as they really happened. That's the poetic truth that we will be looking at across cultures.
Today, we also started with a packet that outlines Carl Jung's work around archetypes. We read a packet that explains how his philosophy works. In class, we read through the "anima" and "the mother." For homework, people were identifying examples of the "anima" and "the mother" from stories with which they are familiar and then discussing how those types fit Jung's model. We'll finish working with this material tomorrow.
Handouts:
Introduction to Archetypes and Jung
Homework:
Identify examples of the "anima" and "the mother" from stories with
which you are familiar and then discussing how those types fit Jung's
model.
Complete your one page response to yesterday's prompt for Spektor's song "Samson".
