Write a thoughtful, carefully argued essay (3-4 double-spaced pages) on one topic (below) from Homer’s Odyssey, Sappho’s lyric, or Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Be sure that the topic interests you; that it intrigues you. Try to find something about which you feel passionate—about which you want to write.

Specific topics include the following:

• How does Dante’s Ulysses compare with Homer’s Odysseus as a type of Western masculinity?
• How do Romeo and Juliet compare with Dante’s Paolo and Francesca as a loving couple?
• How does Wyatt’s lady in “They Flee from Me” compare with Marie de France’s Fairy maiden in Lanval?
• How does Dante’s relationship with Beatrice compare with Petrarch’s relationship with Laura?
• How does Dante’s relationship with Beatrice compare with Surrey’s relationship with his wife in “Give place, ye lovers”?
• What kind of leadership do Romeo and Juliet provide to Western culture?
• What causes the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet?
Advice I: 1) For all topics, assume that your purpose is to persuade our class community of the validity of your argument. This means that you can assume as common knowledge everything that we have spoken together; such an assumption allows you to build on what we’ve said. Assume that we know the story well. 2) Construct an interpretive argument as your thesis not an opinion or textual fact; then support that thesis with evidence: analysis of textual detail and logical argument. 3) Start fast- no opening “histories of the world.” 4) Don’t “rewrite the work.” 5) “Economize your prose” at all points no verbiage. 6) Avoid repeating your main idea discover its depth. 7) Avoid strict “character analysis”; characters are not real people but literary constructs; consider “function” for audiences.
An argument is an arguable proposition—an idea against which someone might reasonably argue. “I love the Odyssey” is an opinion. “The Odyssey is a romantic epic ending in marriage” is a fact. An argument might be: “The Odyssey champions a family ideal over a warrior ideal.”

Work carefully to reveal the architecture of your argument: clarify your thesis and select a clear set of supporting evidence. Gear the evidence to the thesis, as support, not a retelling of the story.

If writing on a comparative prompt, how will you organize your support: by looking at each work in turn, or by selecting ideas by which to compare them? Neither is wrong; both can work. Select one, reveal it, and carry out the analysis.

It is a requirement of this paper and all papers in ENGL 15S.7- that you “enter the conversation” of the course that you demonstrate your knowledge of and contribution to the topics of our discussion. Failure to do so could result in failing the assignment.

Please observe the following guidelines: 1) include a title that is both imaginative and informative (identify the work and the topic even the angle you’ll take [examples: “Odysseus: A Model of a Family Mind”; “Phaeacian Fairyland: The Family Ideal.” Avoid a title with a complete sentence 2) number your pages, beginning with page 2; 3) type using double space; 4) indent quotations longer than 3 or so lines (without quotation marks), reproducing the format in the text (such as capitalized first words), and include the citation outside the period of the quotation in parentheses for example: (4.22 23); 5) build quotations into the text of your paper if shorter than 3 or so lines (with quotation marks and with slashes [/] between verse lines [but not prose lines]) and include the citation as noted above with the exception that the citation goes inside the terminal punctuation (usually a period); Consult a style manual of your choice for further details.

Examples of quotation:

1. Indented quotation:

The enigma of “The Phoenix and Turtle” begins with its opening word, line, and stanza:

Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.
(“The Phoenix and Turtle” 1-4)

2. Built-in quotation:
The concept of obedience is important in Shakespeare; for instance, it shows up in the final speech of King Lear, when Edgar says, “The weight of this sad time we must obey” (5.3.324), as if the whole concept of Jacobean obedience were being re-routed, and right where “The Phoenix and Turtle” takes us: to the heavy “weight” and “sad time” of tragedy itself.

Some do’s and don’ts

1. When writing about literature, generally use the present tense (not the past tense), with respect both to the author or work and characters within the fiction: “In the Odyssey, Homer stages the. . .” or “Odyssey presents the . . .”; and “Odysseus voices his. . . .” This seems counter-intuitive, since Homer is no longer living, and we’re describing an event in a play we have read; but the present tense is a convention of the field.
2. Avoid saying that you are going to “prove” something. Arguments about literature are not scientific experiments. Simply exchange “prove” for such words as the following: argue, show, demonstrate, illustrate, suggest, indicate.
3. Avoid stating your certainty about what an author or work “intends” to accomplish. Intentionality, as it is called, is a controversial topic in literary criticism. Most often, including for Homer, we do not know what an author intends, and usually we can make the same point simply by suggesting that Homer or an author “aims” to do something.
4. Generally avoid assuming that a character’s view in the fiction equates with the author’s or the work’s view. Sometimes, we can indeed find spokespeople in text, but this is not usual. You simply need to be careful here.
5. Don’t use your second paragraph to re-state your first paragraph, or to re-state the first paragraph in the middle of your paper. I see both phenomena fairly often, believe it or not. Make sure that every paragraph takes the discussion forward; that each paragraph advances the argument.
6. Generally avoid imposing your ideology—including your religious orientation—on to an author’s work. While we can never be completely objective, we can start with the work, not ourselves, and try to enter sympathetically into the spirit of that work. That is one way to understand your job as a literary critic.