“ … our imaginations are unruly kingdoms governed by fears and fantasies. They are never neutral.” - Parul Sehgal, The New York Times.
Join us @HKBU CIE CUTLURAL STUDIES
In the course MYTH AND FANTASY, we go down the rabbit hole to (re)discover the myths and fantasies that govern our frames of references.
This course aims to examine the development and evolving nature of myths and to offer broad theoretical frameworks for the analysis of cultural significance of the fantastical. It analyses the definitions and origins of myth, folklore and mythopoeia and examines how myths shape ideals, dreams and provide an understanding of life. It encourages students to analyze how myths and the speculative genre have shaped our identities and have been used as a mode to present and explain certain facets of our realities. Students will be required to evaluate past myths in terms of their changing cultural contexts and to raise important questions in their production of meaning and morality in our world. They will also examine how a contemporary fantasy relates to the older, more established myth, as well as reflects crucial issues of the contemporary societies including the postmodern spirituality, politics of the modern world, evolution of self and narrative identity.
