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Subject: Re: The Five Great Themes
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Salve,

On Wednesday, July 3, 2002, 1:26:45 PM, Diana Wright scripsit:

> A woman in my mythology class came up to me after class & said she would be teaching myth to 9th-graders in the fall & when was I going to discuss the Five Great Themes of Western Literature. 
> Maybe it was Western Culture.  Or Western Philosophy.

> Huh?

> She said, You know, the Five Great Themes of Western Literature that the Greeks Gave Us.  You know -- Man Against Man, Man Against the Gods, Man Against Himself.  

> I forget the other 2 Great Themes but I said I had never heard of them & had no intention of discussing them.

> So WHAT is she talking about?

> DW

She's somewhat confused ... she's yakking about the five types of
conflict that one finds in literature (which is hammered into
kiddies at the middle school level). The five are:

man vs. man
man vs. fate/gods
man vs. himself
man vs. society
man vs. nature

I'm not sure that the Greeks 'gave' them to us or that writers
were even conscious of such things until modern educators in need
of jargon came up with them.

dm

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David Meadows                   Libertas inaestimabilis res est.
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mailto:dmeadows@idirect.com          http://www.atrium-media.com
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