Narrative Mythology

[Name of the Institute]

Narrative Mythology

Proposal

In this paper I will be analyzing J. K. Rowling's “Harry Potter” for my critical essay. The explanation of the narrative represents the heroic quest of the main character Harry Potter. Rowling introduced the character in the company of witches and wizards. Harry Potter represents a heroic quest by introducing the significance of mythological conceptions.

For the analysis of mythological concepts presented by Rowling in her novel is will be discussing the theories presented by Scott A. Leonard and Michael McClure in their book “Myth and Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology” along with two other sources. Authors have analyzed the concept of comparative mythologies and outlined the transformation form oral tradition to written text. Leonard and McClure identified that myths are narratives that provide significance to our actions and conditions of existence. Myth is, however, a difficult concept to define. The reason for this is that it has been the object of much theoretical speculation, and every author has found in it the objects with which he or she is most familiar.

Linguists have found a world of signs and names, psychologists a product of the deepest parts of the human psyche, philosophers a primitive form of philosophy, sociologists and anthropologists the expression of the fundamental beliefs of a society, and so on. Leonard and McClure have arranged mythological stories into conceptual chapters. The chapters include creation myths, trickster myths, the male divine, the female divine and the sacred places. The concepts outlined by the authors provide a structural framework for analyzing contemporary mythologies and modern epistemologies.

Annotated Bibleography

Leonard, S, McClure, M. (2004), “Myth and knowing: an introduction to world mythology”, McGraw-Hill.

Summary

Myth and Knowing provides various concepts of myths around the world and their systematic study, written primarily for introductory college courses in myth, mythology, and world literature, with numerous generative uses in other disciplines, including first-year writing, anthropology, religion, and psychology. Leonard and McClure indicated that textbooks devoted to world myth have tended to feature pallid, often sanitized versions of these sacred narratives, presented not to fire the reader's imagination nor for their inherent beauty and strangeness but to exemplify a limited range of myth types or to illustrate one argument or another about the interpretive key that unlocks the hidden meaning of all myth. Teachers wishing to discuss world myth in terms other than such talc-types as fertility, creation, and hero myths or to investigate with their students the psychological and cultural Implications of these stories have been forced to rely on supplemental course packets and a great deal of ingenuity. Leonard and McClure identified that myths are narratives that provide significance to our actions and conditions of existence. Myth is, however, a difficult concept to define.

Relevance

Leonard and McClure have endeavored to create a book that acquaints students with traditional academic classification systems but that nevertheless puts the story itself above all else. While, like its predecessors, the text does a great deal of summarizing of the world's myths to illustrate various teaching points, ...