LAST WEEK students finished readingNarayan's The Ramayana. This week students will write an essay on the myth's meaning, analyzing it in the context of Campbell's monomyth AND in the context of contemporary life, using direct citation for both cases. More on that at the end of the week. Our next book is Homer's Iliad. You want to have the Lombardo translation in class next week.

Monday

Presentation on women within the epic poem and Indian women, chapter eight, "Memento from Rama."
HW: Complete the blog post on Sita's journey tonight. One paragraph!

Tuesday

Completing the heroic archetype index from Pearson's book on self-improvement using Jungian psychology. Subsequently, we will start reading the chapter on the warrior archetype.
HW: Finish reading the warrior chapter for homework.

Wednesday

Film: Sita Sings the Blues. This wonderful animated re-telling of The Ramayana came out a few years ago, and is set in the context of an illustrator happily living with her boyfriend in San Francisco, until he is suddenly transferred to work in India. We will start this today, and continue watching it through Friday.
HW: Tonight you will brainstorm a claim (debatable thesis statement that is probable, debatable, and (at least hypothetically) important to your audience). For that, you will want to finish this rubric, using several complete sentences (and not repeating yourself in different parts): While studying the Indian epic poem The Ramayana as a hero-journey, the most important thing to know is: _____A______. Knowing this about the myth, we come to realize ______B_______. (Part A illustrates the most important thing to know about the myth, part B what it subsequently tells us about life overall).

Thursday

Continuing with Sita Sings the Blues.
HW: Once approved, you need to brainstorm reasons that explain why your claim is true. These should be several of these, and they should generally support and explain the claim. If you struggle to come up with these, that's usually an indication that your claim is too general or not significant enough (For example, I could claim, "Rama defeats Ravana, and in so doing completes his hero-journey." But that's too simplistic to work effectively. Yes, he does defeat Ravana and complete his journey. So? What doe we learn as a result? If you struggle with reasons, you should likely revise your claim, making it more specific and deepening the societal connection.

Friday

Finishing Sita Sings the Blues.
HW: This weekend, write an outline for a paper on The Ramayana. For it, I want to see: a) your claim; b) your reasons; c) supporting quotes for each reason. Due Monday.