Mything out in Reading and London... "Making classics better" while starting summer-term teaching at Roehampton

This week I began teaching a module I have taught quite a few times over the years. The module is Myths and Mythology - it's about myth in ancient Greece and Rome. It's about more than this too - the module uses myth as a vehicle for students, who are in the second year of their BA studies, to reflect on what it means to be studying antiquity at this point in their degree.

There are a few reasons why I am blogging about the module here - in a blog about autism and classical myth.

One is this - during the module we shall be thinking about how myth can resonate beyond "the academy" we shall look at various initiatives including what I'm doing, myth-linked, with autistic children. I've done this kind of thing previously in class, and the feedback each time has encouraged me to keep the session on the syllabus... 

Here are some of the outcomes of sessions with Myths students, starting with a few from 2018, where the students were working from the very initial drawings I had made linked with the artefact I shall mention below:

This second set, from 2019, meanwhile are using the high-quality vector drawings created by Steve Simons:

This time round, I shall be making the most of the remote delivery mode we are adopting due to covid by bringing in a guest tutor, a psychiatrist, based in Italy, who uses Hercules myth with his patients. I anticipate blogging on this session...

For now,  I want to reflect, from an autism-linked perspective on a key things we have been looking at this week. I am doing this because I have felt inspired to thanks to the engagement of the students. I am also doing it because the students are going to be blogging as their assignments for the module - and I thought that, by practising what i preach and blogging myself on something growing out of the session, I'd put out a few reflections,

The "key thing" in question is that shift that has been proposed for some time now away from myth as a thing, a noun, that can be classified, and defined, to myth as a process, or an act, or a moment - a verb, then, rather than a noun. Helen Morales, whose Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction of 2007, is a book I'm very much recommending to the students, is a key figure advocating this move from a classical perspective, while the touchstone work verbifying myth is Roland Barthes' Mythologies from the 1950s.

As I've just said, the shift involves moving from myth as a definable thing to a process, or a moment, or I suppose - fitting the whole ethos of this module, from its inception around 20 years ago - as a "vehicle."

Yesterday, I gave a talk at the University of Reading's summer term seminar series - as part of a set of papers engaged with "Making Classics Better." My focus was on the use I am making of a particular episode as depicted on a particular work of art - a chimney-piece panel in the Adam Room in Grove House at the University of Roehampton showing Hercules trying to choose - or perhaps unable to choose - between two different paths in life. The photos above, from Myths and Mythology classes in 2018 and 2019, show line-drawn versions of the panel. 

I shall blog on the specific things I talked about, and also on the super useful things that came up in the chat and in the questions - further down the road.

For now, I want to start thinking about what can happen when the work of art is seen as a act of "myth-ing." I am gong to throw out a few things here then return to them subsequently. Here goes (and with a note to any of the Myths students reading this blog namely that while not liked in essays, bullet points are fine - and possibly a good thing - when blogging):

• Each time someone - anyone - engages with the panel they are creating their own meaning - their own act of reception.
• No one owns the panel - or anyone can - as when the drawings of the panel by Steve Simons are coloured in - or adapted, such as though being animalised, such as in the creation below, by Anna Mik.
• Back in the 18th century, being myth-ed were likely contemporary ideas, fuelled by the rise of capitalism and industrialisation, of what the right balance might be between hard work, one of the options for Hercules to choose, and pleasure, the other option.

I shall pause for now - and aim to pick all this up later. I have suggested top the student that they aim for a blog posting each week during the five weeks of the module. I shall plan to do the same...

Making classics better though autism and classical myth...

When I last posted on this blog - right at the start of this month - the website for ACCLAIM, the network for anyone interested in autism and classical myth, was not long live. And it was growing, as was our new twitter account. 

Snap shot of @AcclaimNetwork - with details
of Cora Beth Fraser's interview and my upcoming
contribution to "Making Classics Better"

The ACCLAIM website is continuing to grow, and I am so very pleased to share that I've been contacted by several people interested in the topic, including autistic academics and people with autistic relatives. One result of these contacts is that I shall be going - remotely - into a school's autism base later this summer term to do a session with their students!

A few more updates... Adam Soyler's interview with me is live! Here I talk about autism, mythology, why autism and mythology connect and why the activities I'm developing have taken a Herculean turn. Here's a screen shot of the start of the interview:

I've been struck that some of the things that Cora Beth Fraser says in her interview with Adam, also now up, fit my reflections...

One final thing: I shall be contributing to "Making Classics Better" next week (Weds 28th April) at a remote session at Reading University - as part of their summer series of papers by people seeking to find different and more inclusive ways of doing classics. Here's my title and abstract:

What Makes Classical Myth an Ideal Topic for Autistic Children?

Autistic people can have rich imaginative lives – contra one of the “myths” of autism, perpetuated not least because it can be hard for an autistic person to communicate feelings and desires. In this paper, Susan Deacy will set out how and why classical myth can “speak” to autistic children, and engage the imaginations of autistic children. She will focus especially on a set of lessons she is developing based on stories about Hercules – a figure who can exemplify particularly well what it can be like to negotiate the world as an autistic person – as part of the European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood and the ACCLAIM (Autism Connecting with Classically-Inspire Mythology) Network. 

Connecting autism and myth - during Autism Week ***and beyond...***

I have mentioned previously on this blog that I do like doing things in connections with particular "Days," "Weeks" and "Months." Here, for example, I say something about an event I hosted during February 2021 for LGBT+ History Month. And I have several times now been active on this blog during Autism Week, not least two years ago when I blogged - sometimes quite extensively - each day, starting here, about issues that bore in some way on autism, mythology, Hercules and mythical "hope."

I love the energy and focus that a Day, Week etc can call up - and I see any activities doing during that Day e.g. as part of something ongoing, as well as a time to reflect on progress to date for instance, or to try something new. 

This year, there has been a lot going on, and each thing is part of an initiative that, beginning here, will continue for this rest of this year, and beyond. What's going on is, in each case, part of ACCLAIM, the network for anyone interested in where autism and mythology connect. ACCLAIM has been around for a few years now - but it now has its own spaces on social media to help facilitate existing - and new - connections.

We have a website, hosted by Our Mythical Childhood, whose creation - on day 1 of Autism Week - is has been enabled by the support of Katarzyna Marciniak and created by Rafał Łempicki. 

Since day 1 - we're still only in day 4 - the site has been growing, including with an emerging "Members" page. The screen shot above - taken yesterday - is already out of date. Click the link now and you will see Aimee Hinds' name in blue to signal that her bio is ready. You will find too the photo and bio of Dani Shalet. You will also find pictures and bios of our newest members, Cora Beth Fraser and of Katarzyna Marciniak. That's four rows now complete...

You will also find an emerging page for interviews conducted by Adam Soyler, a Roehampton student who is doing a work placement with Our Mythical Childhood. The first interview, with myself, will go live very soon, today hopefully, and others will follow soon, including with Lisa Maurice and Ayelet Peer. Another page, for "Events" includes, to date, the initial notice about an event that Erika Ruminate, another Roehampton student currently doing her placement with OMC, is organising.

We also now have a twitter account @AcclaimNetwork - as of Sunday evening of last week!

We shall keep putting up content, and if anyone reading this posting has ideas - or indeed would like to join - do get in touch. There's a "contact us" bar on the website, or anyone can add a comment to this posting.

Happy Autism Week 2021- and beyond :)