Myth, Legend and History
UndergraduateLTU-HIS1MLH2025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
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- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 23 Feb 2025
- Entry requirements
- No ATAR needed, No prior study
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Price from
- $2,124
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Myth, Legend and History
About this subject
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge and historical understanding of at least one period or culture of the past through an analysis of relevant myths and/or legends.
- Construct an evidence-based argument which analyses one or more myths/legends of past societies and communicate this clearly, demonstrating cultural awareness.
- Examine how diverse peoples have constructed stories about their pasts by undertaking research according to the methodological and ethical conventions of the History discipline.
- Navigate and critically assess historical evidence, scholarship and changing representations of the past.
- Identify and reflect critically upon the knowledge and skills developed in the study of History.
- What is History?
- Myths and Legends of the Ancient World
- Legendary Women
- King Arthur
- The Vikings
- Modern Nation Building
- History in a 'Post-Truth' World
How and why did people start to compose stories about the past? Why are some of these stories referred to as ‘history,’ when others are classified as ‘myth’ or ‘legend’? How are history and the nation connected? The history we study at school and university is the product of a particular western European tradition, but there are different ways of knowing about the past, and complex reasons why some stories survive over centuries. The discipline of history itself has also changed over time.
In this subject you will explore how diverse peoples have constructed stories about their pasts, and how these stories have made an impact over time. You’ll hear from experts in the disciplines of History, Classics, and Archaeology who share an interest in the past but who use different types of evidence and ask different questions of that evidence. Our examination will range from the myths of Classical Greece and Rome; through the ancient texts, oral traditions and archaeology of South Asia, Early Medieval Britain and the Viking world; to uses of the past in the settler colonial worlds of America and Australia from the 19th century, in twentieth-century Nazi Germany, and in contemporary South Asia.
You will gain expertise in using a variety of historical sources including written stories, documents, objects, and visual materials such as paintings and film. You will have the opportunity to reflect on what it really means to study 'history’ and why history continues to play both an important and controversial role in politics, culture and in our understandings of ourselves.
This is a level 1 subject.
- Plan for Assessment 2 and bibliography of primary and secondary sources (equivalent 500 words). (10%)
- Research Assignment (equivalent 2,000 words). (50%)
- A portfolio consisting of tutorial worksheets and a reflective task (equivalent to 1600 words in total). (40%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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Entry requirements
No entry requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
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