Jung Society of Atlanta

John S. Gentile, Ph.D.

The Salmon of Knowledge: Storytelling & Irish Myth

March 20, Saturday Lecture 7:30 pm
members: free; non-members $15; students $10

   A blessing on every one who shall faithfully memorise the Táin as it is
   written here and shall not add any other form to it.

   But I who have written this story, or rather this fable, give no credence to
   the various incidents related in it. For some things in it are the deceptions
   of demons, others poetic figments; some are probable, others improbable;
   while still others are intended for the delectation of fools.

        —Anonymous scribe upon the completion of the Táin Bó Cúalnge

Humanity may be considered homo narrans, the storytelling animal. This lecture has a dual focus; one aspect focuses on the nature of oral storytelling, the other on the mythology of Ireland. What is meant by the oral tradition?  How did orality and literacy interface in the development of the Irish mythology?  How do these Irish stories reflect a syncretism of Paganism and early Christianity? These are among the questions considered in this lecture that will feature stories from the myth cycles of Ireland such as the Táin Bó Cúalnge (“The Cattle Raid of Cooley”) -- considered the Iliad of Ireland – and the great Irish love triangle, The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne, which will be looked at through Jungian psychology.

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John S. Gentile, PhD is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Kennesaw State University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and his M.A. in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute.  He is founding co-editor of Storytelling, Self, Society: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Storytelling Studies. His stage production based on Joseph Campbell’s work, The Hero’s Journey: Mythic Stories of the Heroic Quest, was featured at the international Mythic Journeys conference in Atlanta in 2004 and his adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick received the award for Best Performance at the Casablanca Theatre Festival in Morocco in July 2009.  His essay, “The Pilgrim Soul: Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick as Pilgrimage” is forthcoming in Text & Performance Quarterly. He has traveled extensively in Ireland, where he has led study/tours in Irish mythology and coordinates a study abroad program in partnership with the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin.