Exploring Myself: Metaphor and Creativity
Course Description:
Methods of Instruction:
Individual work: journal writing, creative products.
Group Work: discussion, some cooperative projects
Objectives:
the ability to think metaphorically
trust in one another
improved skills in reflection and self-analysis
improved writing skills
through reflective journal writing
Major Questions
Which parts of my self are authentically mine, which are taught
and /or expected?
Where do I belong in the world?
Does my self-definition impose unwelcome limitations on my life
?
Are the things that keep us safe the things that confine us?
When I take risks, what am I risking?
Assignments:
Each week students will do a creative project and will write
a short reflective paper.
Evaluation:
their creative projects (artistic merit will not be a factor)
their reflective papers
class participation in discussion.
NOTE: Personal disclosures about thoughts and feelings should
be kept at level that is comfortable for the students.
The ocean has one taste: the taste of salt.
The truth has one taste: the taste of liberation.
WEEK 1: Take Me As You See Me
Lecture / Discussion:
Introduce the concept of metaphor. It is an ancient mode of
thinking still used in poetry, dreams, and products of the imagination.
We all have 'public selves'. Who is my public self? How does
this self function in 'real life'? Is this self only a place
holder? Are there times when this self can substitute for the
'real person'? What are the qualities of this self? Is this self
shaped mainly by others?
Creative Project: Fashion a Public Self
Working with a partner, students will trace their bodies on
butcher paper, cut out two of these tracings, color them and
put details in front and back. The students will staple the front
and back together around the edges and stuff the figures with
newspaper. Hair, etc, may be added.
Students will take the figures home and may put clothes on
them if they wish. They should try putting the figures in 'their
'places, seating them in their chairs, using them as 'place holders'
in their daily lives.
Assignment:
The student will write a short paper -- 2-3 pages -- summarizing
his/her thoughts on his/her public self. What was learned about
these 'public selves'?
WEEK
2: My Life as a Board Game
Lecture / Discussion:
Students share and discuss their experiences with their 'public
selves'. What is your life like? Try thinking of it as a board
game. What are the obstacles? Who/what helps? What is your goal?
What are the rules? What role does chance play? Are you competing
with other players, or is it a game of solitaire?
Creative Project: A Board Game
Using poster board, origami paper, marking pens, glue, and
rulers, each student will design and create a board game that
represents his/her life. Students may show their lives as they
are right now, or their life stories.
Assignment:
The student will write a short paper -- 2-3 pages -- summarizing
his/her thoughts on the board game. Is this game an enjoyable
one?
WEEK
3: My Two Faces
Lecture / Discussion:
Students discuss their board games and how they represent
their lives. We each have a public self and a private self. Are
these selves alike or different? What do they share? Are they
in conflict? What shapes the public self? What shapes the private
self? Why is the private self hidden?
Creative Project: A Life Mask
Each student will make a plaster of paris 'life mask' with
a partner, using gauze strips impregnated with plaster of paris.
Assignment:
Each student will decorate his/her mask at home, painting,
etc the outside to depict the public self, the inside to depict
the inner self.
The student will then write a short paper -- 2-3 pages --
summarizing his/her thoughts on what the mask and its decorations
means to him/her.
WEEK
4: String Games
Lecture: / Discussion
Students share and discuss the public self/private self assignment.
Our lives are connected to those around us. Are we tied? Free?
Where are the connections freely chosen, where are they obligations?
Are these ties elastic? Does communication go both ways? Which
ties are we willing to relinquish? Which would we gladly be rid
of? Which are essential to us?
Creative Project: String and Wire Figures
Using string of various thicknesses, wire, and elastic bands,
students will make string figures of themselves and others to
whom they are connected. These figures may be hung from coat-hangers.
placed in a web in a frame, or attached to a base.
Assignment:
The student will write a short paper -- 2-3 pages -- summarizing
his/her thoughts on the string figure exercise.
WEEK 5: My Life's Journey
Students share and discuss the string figure assignment.
One way to think of our lives is as a journey through a landscape.
Creative Project: Build the Landscape of your Life's Journey
Using a box lid or cut-down cardboard carton, each students will build a model of the landscape of his/her life. Materials available will include gauze and plaster-of-paris strips, newspaper, glue, beans, rice, sand, paint, foil, possibly pieces of scrap wood or styrofoam.
Assignment:
The student will write a short paper -- 2-3 pages -- about
his/her life's journey and what the landscape meant to him/her.
WEEK
6: If My Body Fit Me --
Students share and discuss their life's journey construction.
Suppose that you were about to be given a body that fit YOU,
the REAL you. What would it be like? What powers would it have?
Creative Project: Build a Body That Would Fit You
Using Model-Magic Modeling clay, build a model of a body that
would fit the real you. (Foil Core OK) Give it whatever powers
and senses it needs. What sort of environment is appropriate?
Materials for creating a diorama will be available.
Assignment:
The student will write a short paper -- 2-3 pages -- about
the body that would best fit him/her self.
WEEK
7: If I Met You in a Dream --
Lecture / Discussion:
Students discuss the body forms and environments that fit
them best.
Discuss the real self and the public self. Why do we all have
public selves? Why is disclosure so risky? Do our personal selves
have many things in common? (Fears, dreams, emotionally tied
thoughts) What is privacy, and why do we need it? Which self
is the more beautiful? Which is more 'real'? Can we share the
inner self without pain? If you could always be your inner self,
what would you be like?
Creative Project: Two Panels, Two Selves
Use pictures--photos, objects and icons or make two self portraits,
one of the outer self and one of the inner self. The outer self
will enclose the inner self (at least to some degree,) in a box,
frame, folding screen. etc.
Who are you? Identify and describe yourself in two settings
-- the outer world around you and the inner world. If I met you
in a dream, how would I know you? Are there roads and communication
channels between the two 'yous'?
Assignment:
The student will then write a short paper -- 2-3 pages -- summarizing his/her thoughts on these two selves.
WEEK 8: Am I a Captive?
Lecture / Discussion:
Students share and discuss their containers and what they
contain.
Metaphors for freedom (soaring eagles, wild animals, lone
gun heroes) and captivity (chains, cages, slavery) Are we free?
Can we be captured (by expectations, ideology, economic conditions,
etc. ) ? Have we all, to some extent, been kidnapped? Can we
become free?
Creative Project: A Ransom Note
Students will make a ransom note about their own kidnapping,
a collage of words cut from newspapers and magazines. Who or
what is holding you ransom? What must be paid for your release?
Who will pay it? Where are you being held? What will happen if
you are not ransomed? Can you help yourself to escape?
Students will work in groups at tables, sharing materials.
Assignment:
The student will write a short paper -- 2-3 pages -- summarizing
his/her thoughts on the ransom note. What does personal liberty
mean to you?
WEEK 9: The Self I Am Becoming
Lecture / Discussion:
Students discuss the ransom notes and how they can be freed.
In our growth, we have dreams about, and desires for, the
person whom each of us is becoming. We are guided by ideals,
the examples of others, a delicate sense of inner vision. How
do you become the person whom you are becoming? Is this the person
whom you want to become?
Creative Project:
Using starch, cloth, modeling compound, wire, and wood, the
student will make a sculpture of the person he/she is becoming.
An environment may also be constructed. The sculpture need not
represent a human form.
Assignment:
The student will then write a short paper -- 2-3 pages --
summarizing his/her thoughts on the person whom he/she is becoming.
WEEK 10: My Life in Balance
Lecture / Discussion:
Students discuss their sculptures of the persons they are
becoming.
Life is full of demands, needs, responsibilities, persons,
and tasks. How does your life balance, and is there room for
you in it?
Creative Project:
Make a mobile, showing how the various elements of your life
relate to one another, and balance each other out. Do you see
ways that you could alter the balance to allow more freedom to
your inner self?
Assignment:
The student will then write a short paper -- 2-3 pages --
summarizing his/her thoughts on the way his/her life balances.
WEEK 11: Exam Week: Celebration and Culmination -- 2
hours
Take Home 'Exam:
Students will spend about 45 minutes jotting down ideas about
what they have learned in this course and about 45 minutes (total)
describing what they appreciate in each of the other students.
Final class meeting will be spent sharing what was written
in a celebratory atmosphere (with food).
Some Possible Readings:
Rogers, Carl,. On Becoming a Person
Fromm, Eric, The Art of Loving
Erikson The Self Actualized Person
Buscaglia, Leo, Personhood
Possible Videos:
Vincent (Van Gogh)
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Odd numbered lessons explore the self: even numbered lessons
explore our relationships with others.
Time Considerations
This course takes about 4 hours a week -- an hour of discussion
and about 2 1/2 to 3 hours on the creative projects. This breaks
down to 40 hours = 4 hours of quarter credit.
Individual lessons could also be used in workshops.
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© Elizabeth Anne Viau, 1996. This material may be used freely for instructional purposes but not sold for a price beyond the cost of reproduction. Please e-mail me at eviau@earthlink.net if you use this material. I'd be interested to know how it works for you!