Comparative Mythology Analysis Workbook: Methods, Texts, and Structured Interpretation

Reading about the hero's journey is not the same as being able to apply structural analysis to a myth you have not encountered before. This workbook course builds practical analytical skills through direct engagement with mythological texts, guided by structured templates and worked examples that make abstract methods concrete. By the end of this course you will be able to apply structural, archetypal, and functionalist analytical methods to mythological texts, write comparative analyses of myths from different traditions, identify and evaluate the scholarly interpretations of specific myths, and develop your own analytical approach with awareness of its methodological assumptions. What you will learn: - Close reading of mythological texts: how to approach a myth as a primary source — identifying narrator, audience, cultural context, and narrative structure - Structural analysis exercise: applying Lévi-Strauss's method to the Oedipus myth and then to a myth of your own choice using a provided worksheet - Archetypal identification exercise: identifying shadow, anima/animus, hero, trickster, and wise elder figures in three different cultural traditions - Hero's journey mapping: applying Campbell's monomyth template to the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, and a non-Western heroic narrative — and noting where the template fits and where it strains - Comparative essay structure: a framework for writing a 600-word comparative analysis of two myths with clear thesis, evidence, and methodological self-awareness - Myth and social function: exercises in reading myths as encoding social structures, gender roles, or political arrangements using a functionalist lens - Cognitive approaches exercise: applying Pascal Boyer's categorization theory to explain the cross-cultural recurrence of supernatural agent categories - Critical comparison: evaluating three different scholarly interpretations of the same myth (e.g., the Flood) against each other using a structured comparison table Each chapter provides a mythological text or excerpt, a guided analysis exercise, a worked example, and a blank template. A final capstone exercise asks you to produce a complete comparative analysis of two myths using the method of your choice, supported by your chosen framework. This course is suitable for students with a basic knowledge of world mythology who want to develop scholarly analytical skills. No prior academic training in mythology or religious studies is required, though some prior reading in world mythology will be helpful.