Storytelling: It's All Greek to Me
IFMTV-UT 1203 | 4 units | Instructor: Sylvia Sichel
This course will focus on the fundamentals of storytelling, analyzing Greek mythology, poems, and fables. We will also explore contemporary methods of storytelling, such as short stories by J. D. Salinger, Toni Morrison, and others. The Greeks introduced oral storytelling, which will lead us to Spalding Gray, Richard Pryor, and poet Kae Tempest and singer-storytellers, from Leonard Cohen to Bob Dylan and Beyoncé. It’s All Greek… will study podcasts (S-TOWN, How I Built This) and webisodes (Booth at the End, High Maintenance).
Course Objectives:
1. Introduce students to Greek literature, writers, and philosophers, as well as current storytellers from a variety of genres.
2. By looking and thinking beyond the bounds of contemporary entertainment, students are introduced to storytelling that is not only evocative, but intellectually stimulating.
3. At the completion of the course, students will write a Greece-inspired piece. The final assignment can be a short story, short film script, feature film treatment, outline or treatment for a TV pilot or web series. All projects must take place in Greece. Using Greek stories, myths, and fables is encouraged.
Course excursions include sites such as the Acropolis, Delphi, and Hydra.