Storytelling: It's All Greek to Me
IFMTV-UT 1203 | 4 units | Instructor: Sylvia Sichel
This course uses ancient Greek literature to inform and strengthen your own storytelling craft. By looking beyond the bounds of contemporary entertainment, you'll encounter narratives that are both evocative and intellectually engaging. This mythological and structural approach can free you from familiar patterns and open new possibilities for storytelling. We'll explore Greek mythology, epic poetry, and drama alongside their contemporary iterations to identify timeless narrative techniques such as structure, character development, conflict, and theme that you'll use as inspiration for your own creative projects. Through short writing exercises and workshops, you'll develop a story throughout the course, culminating in an original Greek-inspired piece. The final assignment can be a short story, short film script, one-act play, feature film treatment, or treatment/outline for a TV pilot, web series, or podcast series. Students are encouraged to draw inspiration from Greek myths, fables, stories, and dramatic traditions.
Course Objectives:
Explore Greek mythology, epic poetry, and drama to identify timeless narrative techniques
Practice storytelling craft through short writing exercises and peer workshops
Develop and complete an original Greek-inspired creative project in your chosen medium
Apply mythological frameworks as a tool for generating original stories and breaking free from conventional narrative patterns
Course excursions include sites such as the Acropolis, Delphi, and Hydra.
