The course splits Mythology into the first semester with core myths such as Beowulf, The Odyssey and their contemporary tellings and dedicates Folklore and texts like Dracula to the second semester. Senior Nandini Saldi took HAmLit as a junior and is now talking Mythology/Folklore & Writing.
“I think this class is really good if you enjoy fiction or old stories, but we don't just do old stories, we [also] do modern retellings of the stories,” Saldi said. “If you enjoy discussions and some group work, [and] if you like to talk about the differences between ancient and modern literature, I think it's a good class.”
Saldi enjoys reading the books of the class and being able to focus on a specific genre, in contrast to the variety of texts she read in HAmLit. While she dislikes the in-class paragraphs, class discussions are always something she looks forward to.
“My favorite thing is probably the discussions we have,” Saldi said. “They’re really interesting and [I like] how everyone's viewpoints come together.”
Saldi considers the difficulty of the class as regular, a perspective she credits to her experiencing more difficulty in HAmLit. As the bulk of the grade, essays took up the most time for Saldi — brainstorming, writing and editing took Saldi five to 10 hours. However, on an average day, students have half an hour a day of homework dedicated to around 15 pages of reading.