Paper 1: Topics and Guidelines
ENGL 2800H
Great Works I
Prof Kolb
September 15, 2016
Paper 1: Topics and Guidelines
Choose one of the following prompts as the basis for a 3-4 page (no fewer than three full pages, no more than four full pages) critical essay on the Odyssey, due in its final form on Friday, 10/7, at midnight to ). Note that all of these topics are broad. Your job—your first job, anyway—is to narrow the focus. You may do this by choosing a passage or two to analyze in depth and relate to the poem as a whole (as in Blog post 2). Or, you may do this by identifying a complicated binary and analyzing it (As in Blog post 3). You may, of course, find another way in to the topic.
Death. Death in the Odyssey takes many forms. Odysseus’ men die bloodily, at times senselessly; Odysseus himself longs for death when he first approaches and is blown away from Ithaca. Homer links death to pain, but also to seduction and pleasure, as in the episode of the Sirens. For the living, death is complicated—terrifying yet restful; gruesome yet, at times, alluring.For the dead, too, death is a complex matter (think of Achilles, who claims he would rather be a poor farmer than a dead hero, but who nevertheless cares profoundly about immortal fame).
Write an argumentative essay on any aspect of death in the Odyssey. Make sure your paper is driven by a strong claim (or thesis), supported by carefully chosen text.
Memory. Stanley Lombardo begins his translation of the Odyssey, “Speak, memory,” linking poetic production to the act of remembering. Throughout the Odyssey, characters ask each other to recall the past. Remembered episodes from the Trojan war form the reminiscences of Helen and Menelaus, for example; these same stories—we later see—have started to become part of the collective memory of the Greek people, converted into songs sung at far-flung courts, from Ithaca to Phaeacia. At the same time, forgetting—oblivion, rest, death—presents itself as a (pleasurable? dangerous?) alternative to memory.
Write an argumentative essay on any aspect of memory (or forgetting) in the Odyssey. Make sure your paper is driven by a strong claim (or thesis), supported by carefully chosen text.
Women in the Odyssey. The Oydssey represents gender in a complex, rich way. Female characters—monsters, Olympian goddesses, island goddesses, and mortal women—help and hinder Odysseus’ journey. Femininity at times seems to represent a threat (Calypso, Scylla) to masculinity, while at other times, an ideal of feminine beauty and comportment is held up as admirable (Nausicaa, Penelope). Women’s stories are never central to the poem—Odysseus’ story crowds them out, relegates them to the margins—and yet Homer grants us access (often through speeches) to the inner lives of myriad female characters.
Write an argumentative essay on some aspect of the Odyssey’s presentation of a female character, or characters. You may choose to focus on a single figure, or category of figures (a paper on female monsters would be fascinating!). You may focus on feminine activities—bathing, laundry, weaving—or the structure of the household. Make sure your paper is driven by a strong claim (or thesis), supported by carefully chosen text.
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Blog post #4
Use your next blogpost to brainstorm for your essay. Identify your topic, and narrow it down. Write out a (potential) version of your main claim, or thesis. What do you hope to argue? What do you hope to demonstrate, in your paper? How do you plan to make the reader see the Odyssey in a new way? Then, identify at least three passages that will be crucial for your paper. Type these out, and jot a few notes on how you plan to use each to support your claim.
In other words: use this blog post to sketch out your central, driving idea (which may change, over time!) and to start gathering evidence from the text.
Post your brainstorming by Tuesday, 9 pm.
By Thursday, class time, you must comment on all the posts in your group. I will send out group assignments over email (3-4 people per group).