EAC 297-Myths and Legends Research Essay Topics (25%) 1) Choose a modern hero (for example a comic book hero) and compare that hero with one found in an ancient myth. You may choose heroes from any culture, but the myths must be written; they cannot be films. This topic requires two primary sources and at least five secondary sources. 2) Pick a myth with which you are familiar (religious or otherwise) and show how that myth fulfills all four of Joseph Campbell's four functions of myth. For this topic I strongly recommend using The Power of Myth as a secondary source. This topic requires at least one primary source and at least five secondary sources. 3) Pick a myth with which you are familiar and examine how a character or characters exhibit the various aspects of Jung's notion of the self (the ego, the persona, the animus, the shadow etc.) It is strongly that you use Jung's work (Man and His Symbols or Four Archetypes) as secondary sources for this topic. This topic requires one primary source and at least five secondary sources. 4) Pick a hero from mythology and show how that hero follows the steps in monomyth as outlined by Joseph Campbell. Make sure that your analysis is very specific; you are required to show how your hero follows the steps and the substeps. For this topic you must use The Hero with a Thousand Faces as one of your secondary sources. 5) Take any full-length book or epic poem (not the text for the course) that is a mythological story (fiction) and come to a conclusion regarding one of its central themes. In your essay your argument should be more specific than simply trying to prove that the theme exists (ex. an essay in which you try to prove that the theme of friendship exists in Harry Potter would not work).