Week 17: website

Look at the following website: www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/Monstrosity/intropage/homepage.html.

Or, type www.umich.edu and enter "monsters" into the search page, then find the page listed above.

There is A LOT of information on this site, including some interactive components. Share some of the pages you visited. See if you can share some of the following:

What is a taboo, and what are some taboos monsters violate?

What are the four types of monsters on this site?

How do our ideas about monsters change as we age?

What is your favorite part of the site?

Week 16: Categories of Monsters

How would you group types of monsters? Animal v. human? Machine v. creature? What are some ways you can think of to put monsters into categories? Share your ideas, then see if you can some up with some groupings as a class.

Weeks 14-15: Archetypes

Our focus for this class is on monsters and heroes. Many characters in myths and literature/movies have a certain model that they're based on, called an archetype.

Go to the website www.tamicowden.com/archetypes.htm. Find different types of hero/heroine/villain archetypes. Share your thoughts with the class. What is an archetype? What are examples of archetypes.

Second, share some ideas about the archetypes we are viewing in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Make sure to have FOUR entries for these two weeks!

Week 13: Heroes in our Culture

What are some observations you might make about heroes and the way they are presented in modern TV and movies? What kinds of things do these heroes (and the villains they oppose) show about our society's values?

Week 12: The Heroic Adventure

Now that we have discussed the stages of a typical heroic adventure, what are some other stories you know of that follow these stages? You can include any medium: books, movies, poems, TV shows, comic books, etc.

Week 11: Legends

What is a legend? What are some legends you know or have heard of? Try to include modern legends, too.

Week 9: Focus: Heroes

What is a hero, anyway? What are some things that heroes and heroic adventures have in common?