I've been thinking about which stories are, increasingly, universal. Namely, which tales, mythologies, and characters should be known by a large audience.
Of course, even with my interest in Asia, with its long literary history, and other cultures' oral histories, my list skews white and Western. Thanks to Disney, though, something like Hercules has now entered the global cultural consciousness. Hollywood helped the whole world become aware of a Western set of stories.
This doesn't include child-specific cultural literacy (Dr. Seuss, Goodnight Moon, Looney Tunes, Mickey Mouse, Peanuts, etc.)
That said, here are the stories I think most people do/should be aware of:
MYTHOLOGIES
Buddhism
Buddha's life
Celts
Arthur
Chinese
Monkey - Journey to the West
Daoism
Zodiac
Greeks
Iliad and spin-offs (Oresteia, Aeneid, Odyssey)
Pantheon and Hercules
Theban cycle
Zodiac
Hinduism
Basic Pantheon (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Lakshmi, Ganesh)
Baghavad Gita
Ramayana
Judeo-Christian
Genesis (Creation, Eden and Cain and Abel, Noah, Tower of Babel, Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael, Sodom and Gomorrah)
Exodus (Moses and the Exodus)
Jonah
Job
New Testament (Jesus' life and death, Revelations)
Norse
Pantheon
Ragnarok
West Africa
Mwindo
STORIES AND FOLKTALES
China
Outlaws of the Marsh
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Europe
Aesop and La Fontaine (Grasshopper and the Ants, Fox and the Grapes, Tortoise and the Hare, Country Mouse and Town Mouse, Lion and the Mouse, Boy who cried Wolf)
Anderson (Little Mermaid, Emperor's New Clothes, Princess and the Pea, Ugly Duckling)
Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
Barrie (Peter Pan)
Brothers Grimm (Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Rumplestiltskin, Snow White)
Burroughs (Tarzan)
Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)
Cervantes (Don Quixote)
Conrad (Heart of Darkness)
Defoe (Robinson Crusoe)
Dickens (Christmas Carol)
Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)
Goethe (Faust)
Kafka (Metamorphosis)
Orwell (1984, Animal Farm)
Perrault (Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty)
Robin Hood
Rowling (Harry Potter)
Santa Claus
Shakespeare (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Shelly (Frankenstein)
Stevenson (Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
Stoker (Dracula)
Swift (Gulliver's Travels)
Tolkien (Hobbit, Lord of the Rings)
Wagner's Ring Cycle/Neibelunglied
Wells (Time Machine, War of the Worlds)
India
Kalidasa (Recognition of Shakuntala)
Japan
Zatoichi
Middle Eastern
"1001 Arabian Nights"
United States
Batman
Baum (Wizard of Oz)
"Fakelore" (John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed)
Fitzgerald (Great Gatsby)
Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Melville (Moby Dick)
Spider-man
Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men)
Superman
Twain (Huckleberry Finn)
Cinema and Television
Avengers
Back to the Future
Casablanca
Citizen Kane
Doctor Who
The Godfather
Indiana Jones
James Bond
Jaws
Jurassic Park
King Kong
Metropolis
Muppets
Princess Bride
Psycho
Simpsons
Stark Trek
Star Wars
Terminator
The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin)
2001: A Space Odyssey
What do you think? What am I missing?
Of course, even with my interest in Asia, with its long literary history, and other cultures' oral histories, my list skews white and Western. Thanks to Disney, though, something like Hercules has now entered the global cultural consciousness. Hollywood helped the whole world become aware of a Western set of stories.
This doesn't include child-specific cultural literacy (Dr. Seuss, Goodnight Moon, Looney Tunes, Mickey Mouse, Peanuts, etc.)
That said, here are the stories I think most people do/should be aware of:
MYTHOLOGIES
Buddhism
Buddha's life
Celts
Arthur
Chinese
Monkey - Journey to the West
Daoism
Zodiac
Greeks
Iliad and spin-offs (Oresteia, Aeneid, Odyssey)
Pantheon and Hercules
Theban cycle
Zodiac
Hinduism
Basic Pantheon (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Lakshmi, Ganesh)
Baghavad Gita
Ramayana
Judeo-Christian
Genesis (Creation, Eden and Cain and Abel, Noah, Tower of Babel, Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael, Sodom and Gomorrah)
Exodus (Moses and the Exodus)
Jonah
Job
New Testament (Jesus' life and death, Revelations)
Norse
Pantheon
Ragnarok
West Africa
Mwindo
STORIES AND FOLKTALES
China
Outlaws of the Marsh
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Europe
Aesop and La Fontaine (Grasshopper and the Ants, Fox and the Grapes, Tortoise and the Hare, Country Mouse and Town Mouse, Lion and the Mouse, Boy who cried Wolf)
Anderson (Little Mermaid, Emperor's New Clothes, Princess and the Pea, Ugly Duckling)
Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
Barrie (Peter Pan)
Brothers Grimm (Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Rumplestiltskin, Snow White)
Burroughs (Tarzan)
Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)
Cervantes (Don Quixote)
Conrad (Heart of Darkness)
Defoe (Robinson Crusoe)
Dickens (Christmas Carol)
Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)
Goethe (Faust)
Kafka (Metamorphosis)
Orwell (1984, Animal Farm)
Perrault (Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty)
Robin Hood
Rowling (Harry Potter)
Santa Claus
Shakespeare (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Shelly (Frankenstein)
Stevenson (Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
Stoker (Dracula)
Swift (Gulliver's Travels)
Tolkien (Hobbit, Lord of the Rings)
Wagner's Ring Cycle/Neibelunglied
Wells (Time Machine, War of the Worlds)
India
Kalidasa (Recognition of Shakuntala)
Japan
Zatoichi
Middle Eastern
"1001 Arabian Nights"
United States
Batman
Baum (Wizard of Oz)
"Fakelore" (John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed)
Fitzgerald (Great Gatsby)
Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Melville (Moby Dick)
Spider-man
Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men)
Superman
Twain (Huckleberry Finn)
Cinema and Television
Avengers
Back to the Future
Casablanca
Citizen Kane
Doctor Who
The Godfather
Indiana Jones
James Bond
Jaws
Jurassic Park
King Kong
Metropolis
Muppets
Princess Bride
Psycho
Simpsons
Stark Trek
Star Wars
Terminator
The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin)
2001: A Space Odyssey
What do you think? What am I missing?
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