Re-mixed Myth Project

Then began a new era for the Filipinos; little by little they lost their old traditions, the mementos of their past; they gave up their writing, their songs, their poems , their laws in order to learn by rote other doctrines which they did not understand, another morality, another aesthetics different from those inspired by their climate and their manner of thinking. Then they declined, degrading themselves in their own eyes; they became ashamed of what was their own; they began to admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible; their spirit was dismayed and it surrendered [to]this disgust of themselves. -Jose Rizal 1890 Decolonization is an important project for Filipino Americans. To unlearn the internalized oppression brought on by colonization, there is a need to study how colonial identities are constructed by master narratives that serve to reinforce social and economic and political structures that perpetuate unequal and unjust relationships of power. -Leny Strobel According to Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, colonialism has had a devastating effect on how Filipinos see themselves and their culture/art in comparison to Western culture, art, and thought. He notes how for Filipinos, giving up their indigenous literary forms/practices was integral in giving up their sense of self. Thus, writing can be a tool for decolonization. Strobel defines it as unlearning the internalized oppression of colonialism. She also says that to decolonize is to tell and write ones own story, that in the telling and writing others may be encouraged to tell their own story. As a culminating project for this course we will be telling our own stories as part of our own process of decolonization.

What is Myth?
MYTH
noun 1.a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature. 2.stories or matter of this kind: realm of myth. 3.any invented story, idea, or concept: His account of the event is pure myth. 4.an imaginary or fictitious thing or person. 5.an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution.

According to Western definition, myths are not rooted in any real facts or truth. They are inventions of the imagination that are not generally accepted as being real. However, for many indigenous cultures throughout the world, myth functioned alongside reality and was a way for passing down oral histories.

Why is Myth Important?

In many cultures, people relied on the tradition of storytelling when there was no written language or when their native language was prohibited from being recorded. Myths and oral traditions were often the only means to record historical events, experiences of people, and the cultural teachings. It is also an important way of remembering the lives and experiences of people whos lives are not often in textbooks, movies, and TV. In oral cultures, the conviction that the word is powerful leads to a sense that language possesses power over truth and reality . Once writing was introduced, consciousness changed from mythic to an empirical and historical consciousness ; literacy destroys the immediacy of personal experience and the deeper socialization of the world and consequently the totalizing nature of oral culturesParadoxically, in decolonization, the appropriation of written discourse, becomes a necessary tool for deconstructing the narratives of colonialism and for recovering orality. -Leny Strobel Additionally, the vagueness of myth allows it to flex in and out of what is seen as truth in the Western world. By using myth, we are able to change our concept of truth and reality. In a Western context, there is only one truth and that is usually the written truth and it trumps all other myths. However, in oral cultures, facts and myths can intertwine and there can be multiple or layered truths. For example:
Western View Pele is a mythological Hawai`ian deity (goddess) of the volcano. She is way for the natives to understand the concept of the volcano. Volcanoes are the result of tectonic plates. Hawai`ian View Pele is a fickle goddess that creates land and also destroys things in her path. She is an ancestor who voyaged in a canoe to Hawai`I millennia ago. She is also the volcano in Kilauea. She is also the blossom of the Ohi`a Lehua tree. She is real. Volcanoes are the result of her and also of tectonic plates.

While the Western view can not accept any of the Hawai`ian notions as true, the Hawai`ian view can actually function with scientific scholarship on science (ecology, vulcanology, botany) Myth can give us powerful language to define/explain our lived experiences on our terms at times when Western theory comodifies/oppresses us. If language is a site of ideological struggle, it can also be a site of negotiation. Language can become an oppositional force and an affirmative force; it can create new ways of reading history through the reconstruction of suppressed memories. - Strobel

Final Myth Project (40 pts or 20% of class grade)

This final project, as aforementioned, will involve the crafting of a myth rendering of your life (immigration story or otherwise) emulating (and remixing) one of the forms you have studied, from pre-colonial myths to balagtasan to songs to short story and experimental poem about your own migration or identity story. This will include the text of the myth (story, poem or poem series, short play, folk tale or myth cycle, personal essay, oral history in writing), a writeup about the process, as well as a presentation or performance.

A. Myth Proposal (Due 11/29)

For your proposal, you should write 2 page min. (typed) describing: 1 or more possible models or authors' work you would like to emulate and why; the story/ies of your own you wish to investigate and write about and why; what research you must do (e.g. oral history interviews, library research, visiting a person, place, etc.) and a basic outline of your plan; and how you see this work fitting into the our class and its concepts. *Note that there will not be a remix 5.

5pts

B. Written Myth

25pts

Draft Due 12/6 (an attempt at the complete assignment; a draft of the analysis and a draft of the creative work are required) 10pts Final Draft Due 12/13 15pts You will write a myth about important moments in your life or the life of someone in your family. You have the option of reworking an indigenous mythic style or myth itself. You can also choose your favorite Filipino or Filipino-American author we have discussed in class and emulate their style in order to portray your story. Regardless of form, the creative piece will be 4-5 pages long. Along with your actual myth, you will also write a 3- page analysis of the original myth, mythic style, or the writing style of the author your chose. In this analysis you will compare/contrast your version to the original, naming and discussing what and how you emulated the original piece, and how you departed from that style or model (how did you remix it?). You will also include a brief summary of the events that you have chosen to write about. Be sure to answer: What myth/mythic style/writers style you chose? Why? Describe what the process was like. Integrate at least 1 of the terms from the remix portion of class to discuss how you see your work in your cultural continuum. The total number of pages on your Final Draft Due Date will be a minimum of 7 and as long as 9-10 pages. No plagiarism will be tolerated! Plagiarism is, basically, using others' words without properly CITING them (naming author and title). If you are emulating a story or poem(s), you should still cite the work and author.

C. Performed Myth

10pts

Due 12/13 Remember, myths were passed down in various ways in pre-colonial Philippines so please get creative. Here are some possibilities (may be a combination of the below): Short Story Poetry: Pantoum, Balagtasan, Spoken Word, Found Poem Song Chant Play (multi-character or monologue) Dance/Movement Video / Film or powerpoint employing text and image/film/sound You will perform your myth, or a portion thereof for the class. You will have 5 -8 minutes to present in class so choose the strongest part of your myth. You may employ others in your performance, but if you do, you must rehearse with them. You will have some time in-class to meet and practice on 11/29 and 12/6, but should expect to arrange other meetings on your own time. More guidelines will be provided as to minimum requirements for your performance. GRADING BREAKDOWN Proposal (2pp) Written Portion Rough Draft Final Draft Performance TOTAL

5 10 15 10

40

Sample Significant Events:

Birth Death Marriage Love Divorce Immigration Violence/Trauma War Murder Celebration Graduation Starting a new career Retirement

THE HEROS JOURNEY

(Joseph Campbell, Phil Cousineau, David Adams Leeming)

A.

Departure

1. The Call to Adventure The call to adventure is the point in a person's life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not. 2. Refusal of the Call Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances. 3. Supernatural Aid Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known. 4. The Crossing of the First Threshold This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known. 5. The Belly of the Whale The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person's lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.

B.

Inititation

1. The Road of Trials The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes. 2. The Meeting with the Goddess The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman. 3. Woman as the Temptress At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey. 4. Atonement with the Father In this step the person must confront and be initiated by

whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be "killed" so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm. 5. Apotheosis To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state; the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return. 6. The Ultimate Boon The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.

C.

Return

1. Refusal of the Return So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes? 2. The Magic Flight Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it. 3. Rescue from Without Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon. 4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult. 5. Master of the Two Worlds In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds. 6. Freedom to Live Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

THE HEROS JOURNEY POP LITERATURE MATRIX

Campbell I: Departure The call to adventure Refusal of the call Star Wars Princess Leia's message Must help with the harvest The Matrix "Follow the white rabbit" Neo won't climb out window Harry Potter Receives the letter from Hogwarts Foster Parents are avoiding the letter (move away to an island) Hagrid tells Harry that he is a wizard Passes through the magical wall to platform 9 3/4 The Forbidden Forest (Unicorn) Three headed dogs Chamber

Supernatural aid

Crossing the first threshold The belly of the whale II: Initiation The road of trials The meeting with the goddess

Obi-wan rescues Luke from sand people Escaping Tatooine

Trinity extracts the "bug" from Neo Neo is taken out of the Matrix for the first time Torture room

Trash compactor

Lightsaber practice Princess Leia (wears white, in earlier scripts was a "sister" of a mystic order) Luke is tempted by the Dark Side

Sparring with Morpheus The Oracle

Temptation away from the true path1

Atonement with the Father

Darth and Luke reconcile

Apotheosis (becoming god-like) The ultimate boon

Luke becomes a Jedi Death Star destroyed

Cypher (the failed messiah) is tempted by the world of comfortable illusions Neo rescues and comes to agree (that he's The One) with his fatherfigure, Morpheus Neo becomes The One Humanity's salvation now within reach

III: Return

Refusal of the return

The magic flight Rescue from without Crossing the return threshold Master of the two worlds

"Luke, come on!" Luke wants to stay to avenge Obi-Wan Millennium Falcon Han saves Luke from Darth Millennium Falcon destroys pursuing TIE fighters Victory ceremony

Neo fights agent instead of running "Jacking in" Trinity saves Neo from agents Neo fights Agent Smith Neo's declares victory over machines in final phone call Humans are victorious over machines

Freedom to live

Rebellion is victorious over Empire

Common Mythic Elements Two Worlds (mundane and special) The Mentor The Oracle The Prophecy

Planetside vs. The Death Star Obi-Wan Kenobi Yoda Luke will overthrow the Emperor Biggs

Reality vs. The Matrix Morpheus The Oracle Morpheus will find (and Trinity will fall for) "The One" In an early version of the script, Morpheus once believed that Cypher was "The One" Neo jumps into agent's skin Cypher

Failed Hero

Wearing Enemy's Skin Shapeshifter (the Hero isn't sure if he can trust this character) Animal familiar Chasing a lone animal into the enchanted wood (the animal usually

Luke and Han wear stormtrooper outfits Han Solo

R2-D2, Chewbacca Luke follows R2 into the Jundland Wastes; The Millennium Falcon

N/A Neo "follows the white rabbit" to the nightclub where he meets Trinity

gets away)

follows a lone TIE fighter into range of the Death Star

Folktale Motifs in Heroic Tales

1.One of the heros parents may be divine 2.The heros birth is miraculous or unusual 3.The hero has great strength and is a menace to others 4.The heros truest companion is another male 5.The hero falls under an enemys power and is compelled to perform impossible labors 6.The hero breaks a taboo, and a terrible price is demanded 7.The hero resists the temptations of an enticing but dangerous woman 8.The hero is responsible for the death of a companion 9.The hero goes on a quest, even to the underworld 10.The hero may have the help of gods, spirits, or magical objects 11.The hero returns home, atones for his wrongs, and accepts his limitations 12.The hero is rewarded with something of great value 13.At his death, the hero receives a magnificent funeral and may become a god

HAWAI`IAN MYTHOLOGY
How traditional narrative art develops orally among a nature-worshiping people like the Polynesians can be best illustrated by surveying the whole body of such art among a single isolated group like the Hawaiians. The Hawaiians worshiped nature gods and these gods entered to a greater or less extent into all the affairs of daily life, played a dominant part in legendary history, and furnished a rich imaginative background for the development of fictional narrative. An animistic philosophy thus conditions the Hawaiian's whole conception of nature and of life. Much that seems to us wildest fancy in Hawaiian story is to him a sober statement of fact as he interprets it through the interrelations of gods with nature and with man. Another philosophic concept comes out in his way of accommodating himself as an individual to the physical universe in which he finds himself placed. He arrives at an organized conception of form through the pairing of opposites, one depending upon the other to complete the whole. So ideas of night and day, light and darkness, male and female, land and water, rising and setting (of the sun), small and large, little and big, hard and light (of force), upright and prostrate (of position), upward and downward, toward and away from (the speaker) appear paired in repeated reiteration as a stylistic element in composition of chants, and function also in everyday language, where one of a pair lies implicit whenever its opposite is used in reference to the speaker. Hawaiians use the term ka`ao for a fictional story or one in which fancy plays an important part,

that of mo`olelo for a narrative about a historical figure, one which is supposed to follow historical events. The distinction between ka`ao as fiction and mo`olelo as fact can be pressed too closely. It is rather in the intention than in the fact. Many a so-called mo`olelo which a foreigner would reject as fantastic nevertheless corresponds with the Hawaiian view of the relation between nature and man. A ka`ao, although often making adroit use of traditional and amusing episodes, may also proceed quite naturally, the distinction being that it is consciously composed to inspire and emotionally/spiritually connect to the listener rather than to inform the mind as to supposed events.

KAAO Native Hawai`ian Mythological Process

Ka`ao is a oral narrative form from Hawai`I that is reflective of the oceanic voyaging of that culture. These stories are often used to describe the journeying of deities from ancestral homelands across the ocean to Hawai`i. This form blends itself well to migration stories because it is all about a journey and a form of re-birth. Hua Catalyst (what pushes you to journey) Ha`alele Separation (the act of leaving, farewell) Huaka`i Journey (the actual journey/learning/experience) Make Death (old perception dies) Ho`ina Return (a rebirth or Example of Ka`ao Process in a hula dancers life Hua - Family asks you to hula Ha`alele - You leave to enter the halau Huaka`i - You learn about all the hulas Make - You experience a death of the self. Give up your ego. Ho`ina - You return to your family as a trained hula dancer. As a person with access to the sacred realm. Example of Ka`ao Process for Immigration Story Hua Push/Pull Factors for Immigration (Dreams/struggles in the homeland) Ha`alele Leaving the homeland. Saying goodbye to family/friends/old way of life Huaka`i adjusting to the new life, experiencing America, becoming American Make being crushed by the multiple isms in America, American nightmare, realizing that youre no longer the person you were back home/that home is no longer home. Ho`ina accepting it and moving forward/becoming transnational

GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!