Epic Intent

1. Epic Intent The Great Purpose of Small Stories

2. Stories Of Society and Place • Immigration and Relocation • Diaspora • Political Exile • Migratory or nomadic populations • Economically motivated emigration • Forced relocations • Morality and Justice • Law • Values • Religious Principles • Custom

3. Stories Of Lineage and History • Courage, Death and Heroism • People who risk their lives for the sovereignty of their community identities • The collective bravery of a community • Adversity and triumph leading to a celebration of an identity • Marriages, Birth and Love • A record of the duration of a culture; proof of its success • The continuity of traditions longstanding traditions; a reminder of origins • The creation of economic units (family) • Children and population • A social contract promising a people’s destiny

4. Stories Of Culture and Heritage • Trickster Tales and Comedy • Lessons in survival • Warnings about proscribed behaviors • Reinforcement of social norms • Examples of the outsider • Etiological: explains the cause of common phenomena • Ghost Stories and the Supernatural • Morality tales • The survival of a cultural identity after death • Spiritual approval of customs and norms • Unseen forces that judge and reward our behaviors from “beyond”

5. Folklore and Literature

6. Life and Death • We tell stories for their relevance to our life and to living. • We create stories with the belief that they are deathless. • They prevail in the minds of our audience after they are told. • They continue to be told after we are dead.

7. Anxiety and Nonbeing • Paul Tillich: 20th century German-American theologian and Christian existential philosopher. • In the face of death and nonbeing, we create object of our anxiety (our fear) to vanquish or overcome. • Three kinds of anxiety: • 1. Ontological anxiety: Why were we born? What is our destiny? What is our purpose? • 2. Spiritual anxiety: What becomes of our spirit, our soul, our ego, when we die? What awaits us, if anything, in “the next life”? • 3. Moral anxiety: How will we be remembered? What will we have added to the legacy of our family, our community, our heritage, humankind?

8. Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy • The need to survive; creature comforts: food; sleep; sex; physiological • The need for shelter and safety; protect our creature comforts; security needs • The need to belong; protect our shelters and our safety methods; shared values; social needs • The need for esteem; to stand out above others with whom we belong; to lead or be loved more than others; accomplishment and judgment by actions • The need to self-actualize; to develop our individuality; personal growth; fulfill our potential

9. Life and Literature Overlap • Our personal experiences relate to literature and folklore. • Our personal experiences create literature and folklore. • Folklore and literature inspire or influence our experiences.

10. Exercise 1 • Gather into five groups (approx. six or seven). • Choose what your group agrees to be the strongest story told during the last week, and rewrite it as a modern folktale with widespread appeal to a 21st century American audience • Select a main genre for the story, and revise it accordingly; however, include elements of everyone else’s story (characters, settings, situations, etc.) • Be prepared to explain how the new folktale is modern and American, as well as how readers should relate to it in the following ways: • Society and geographical place • Lineage and history • Culture and heritage

11. Group A: Iroquois Confederacy “Creation Story” (21) Group B: Cherokee “Coyote, Skunk, and the Prairie Dogs” (115) Group C: Lakota “Wohpe and the Gift Of the Pipe” (on-line resource) Group D: Iroquois Confederacy “Origin Of Folk Stories” (on-line resource) ETIOLOGY:a branch of knowledge concerned with the causes of particular phenomenaExerciseGather into four groups to examine the assigned works of Native American folklore. In ten minutes, discuss what you believe is the primary etiological focus of the story, and what its main theme is as a work of folklore with an epic intent (Culture and Heritage; Lineage and History; Society and Place). Be ready for one person in your group to paraphrase the story in his or her own words, and for the group as a whole to defend its decisions about theme and purpose. Discuss the extent to which these stories go beyond basic needs: what needs do they address? What kinds of anxieties?

12. A. Ontological anxiety B. Spiritual anxiety C. Moral Anxiety 1. Society and Place 2. Culture and Heritage 3. Lineage and History Exercise 3The year is 2210. Faster-than-light travel via trans-warp technology has made it possible for humans to go into the furthest reaches of the galaxy in the span of a single generation. You and several hundred other people have just arrived to colonize an Earth-like planet in the Gliese system. Collaborate on a folktale that you hope will be passed down through generations, about the epic journey to this new home. Choose one concept from the left column, and pair it with one from the right column, to help you focus the theme of your story. Take no more than 15 minutes. Alternative Adapt one of the four assigned Native American folktales into a story that could be passed on to 2nd generation colonists, either as an origin tale or as an etiological “lesson” story.