Papers

Final Paper Topic

The Final Term Paper is due on the ELEVENTH of May by Five p.m.
There are NO extensions or late submissions.
This is your Masterpiece and will tell us what You have learned about Close Reading in this Course.

This is an Eight Page Close Reading of any word or phrase of your choice, as it occurs throughout the poetry that we have been reading during the Course. Please show how this term functions metaphorically in the literature that You are examining. How do repetitions of this image operate within the text, what meaning do they generate?

For instance, You might wish to explore the metaphors in the language of Achilles and Socrates; or, in the speeches of Penelope and Phaedra and Iocasta; or, You might wish to look at the imagery in the poetry of Sappho and compare this with the words of Klytemnestra ...

The Abstract for this Final Paper is due on the THIRTIETH of April by 7:30 p.m. This is a serious piece of writing and forms the constitution of your Paper. It describes what You will do in the Paper: what word or phrase or image You will be closely reading, the thesis of your Paper, the texts that You will be drawing upon, and how You will develop an argument. The Abstract will form part of your Paper's grade. It should be an exact and precise ONE page description of the Final Paper.

Good Luck! Send me your thoughts and ideas by e-mail and I shall help You to attune them and to focus the writing. You can also reach me during Office Hours on the telephone.

Second Paper Topic

For your second paper please perform a two to three page close reading of a word or phrase (preferably not an abstract noun nor a verb) as it appears in the following texts given in the Sourcebook:

The Homeric Hymns, Hesiod, Theognis, Pindar, or the Oresteia.

Show how this word or phrase functions within the poetry and demonstrate the metaphorical force of the term and the value which the use of this word or phrase generates within the poetry.

In your opening paragraph, state the thesis of your paper, and then argue carefully and precisely a case, using the text to support your argument. Be precise and forceful in your argumentation, then conclude soundly.

Feel free to contact me by e-mail if you wish me to help you tune up your ideas.

First Paper Topic

Distant Students: Make SURE, please, that your name and e-address is on every sheet of your paper.

Class Students: please staple your pages together.For this first paper, please perform a close reading of any term or metaphor in Iliad. The paper is to be no more than three pages long.

Make sure that You support your thesis statement (given in the first paragraph) with firm textual reference. You must be inductive and thoroughly textual in your argumentation.

If You are unsure about close reading technique, You might want to read an essay by David Schur, The Close Reader, which is on our Course Website.

For those of You who are uncertain as to this process, perhaps You should closely read the phrase, "Will of Zeus". See where this occurs in the poem and examine the semantic field surrounding its usage, its context, and develop an argument as to what this phrase means. How would an audience to the epic understand the force of this phrase? (In your conclusion, you might want briefly to refer to how the term "will of Apollo" functions in the poem.)

Please, be thoroughly textual in your paper, make no claims without firm textual support. Be forensic, as it were ...

This first draft is ungraded and for your benefit only. We shall comment on the drafts and return them to You; and then, You rewrite the paper and re-submit it.