The overall unit focus is the genre of Epic Fiction. It examines fiction that “raises the stakes,” and explores the human experience and behavior when pressed into almost impossibly difficult situations. The epic narrative focuses on a hero, one with generally remarkable characteristics but at least one trait that is almost superhuman. Sometimes this is pure strength, but more often the epic hero has a subtle defining quality. Odysseus of course was known for his intelligence. In the anime
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
, Edward Elric has unrelenting determination to achieve his goals.
Attack on Titan
’s main character, Eren Yeager, shares this determination but it’s coupled with a will to violence that complicates his ambitions.
Evangelion
’s Shinji is crippled with self-doubt, making every action a heroic act of self-trust. True to form, these heroic qualities also betray the characters as their fatal flaws, and just as Odysseus must struggle from pride to self-actualization, so to do his anime counterparts.
The relationship between the texts will work with Homer’s
The Odyssey
as a constraining text and numerous anime will combine with this narrative to show how the epic story can take a variety of forms. The idea is to present a classic story and then ask the questions, “How is this story told in different ways?” and “How does the medium affect the way this story is both told and received?” This process ideally shows students that a story thousands of years old still has power to speak to us in the present, while at the same time it makes the converse point that the stories that so easily command our attention now share common elements with how we’ve been telling stories for centuries. There should be the double-effect of creating buy-in for a very distant text while at the same time helping students pay closer attention and spend more time thinking about what they’re watching now.
