Assignment

Assignment will ask you to make up your own reading response question to three selections you have chosen. At least one selection must be from Unit four; the other two may be from any readings you have done during the course. The three texts should have some interesting theme in common that you can Assignmentine, noting similarities and differences. Be sure there is some point to your comparisons, some answer to the question, "so what?" Be sure also to use plenty of Assignmentples from the three texts you have selected to support your comments about them.

First, write out your question, identifying the three texts you have selected. Then, answer your question thoughtfully, using Assignmentples from the selection to support your ideas. You may use more than three texts if you wish, but this may make your essay more difficult to compose.

Select at least three works that share some common theme that interests you. Some of these suggestions involve more than three, but feel free to select just three of them if you wish. Possible theme groups include:

1. Gilgamesh, Odyssey, Aeneid, Inferno and PopulVuh: journeys to the underworld

2. Ishtar (Gilgamesh), Athena (Odyssey), Venus (Aeneid) and Beatrice (Divine Comedy: Inferno): divine females

3. Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Aeneas, Arjuna, Roland, Eliduc: various sorts of heroes

4. Gilgamesh, Odyssey, Arabian Nights, Inferno, PopulVuh: interesting monsters

5. Gilgamesh, Genesis, Job, PopulVuh, Odyssey, Aeneid, Bhagavad-Gita, Inferno: profound conflicts between human beings and divinity.

6. Kirke, Medea, Dido, Ying Ying, Guildeluec: rejected women

7. Gilgamesh, Jason, Aeneas, Eliduc and/or Chang fromThe Story of Ying Ying: some men who reject women who love them

8. Gilgamesh, Odyssey, Aeneid, Arabian Nights, Decameron (Ninth Tale of the Fifth Day; Frederigo and Monna Giovanna): parents and the children they love/advise

9. Oedipus, Aeneid, Arabian Nights, Inferno: fate and free will.

10. Ishtar, Medea, Kassandra (from Agamemnon), Clytemnestra, Dido, Brother Alberto (from Decameron), Paolo and Francesca (from Inferno), Ying Ying: from love to misery

11. Gilgamesh, Agamemnon, Oedipus, Shahrayar, the Lords of Death (PopulVuh), various characters in the Inferno: tyrant rulers

12. Adam and Eve, Utnapishtim and his wife, Odysseus and Penelope, Shahrayar and Shahrazad; Eliduc and his two wives: marriage in different cultures

13. Job, Oedipus, Aeneas, Arjuna, Roland, Dante's Narrator: trying to do the right thing

You get the idea. There are many more possibilities, depending on your interests.

Remember--your essay should have a point to it; it should be able to answer a reader's question: SO WHAT?

Contact me to discuss your plans for this Assignment before you take it; I can be helpful, and I'd like to communicate with you about your ideas. Do NOT send me a full outline or a draft of the essay. I will not read those. However, I will read and respond to statements of the texts/characters/themes you intend to write about and what your "point" will be.

Plan to write for about two hours. You should develop an essay of eight hundred to one thousand words; it may be longer if you need to say more about your topic. You may bring notes and articles to the testing center; the notes and articles will be stapled to your test and returned to me. You may also bring your textbook to the testing center. If you are using electronic texts, you may bring up to ten pages printed out to use for the Assignment; this will force you to plan carefully in advance. You may not bring a draft of the essay, or completed Activities. Be sure to support any statements you make with Assignmentples from the texts themselves. The purpose of this Assignment is to encourage you to demonstrate your own understanding and thinking about what you have read; there is no simple, single answer to any of these questions.

For the Assignment itself, discuss the group you have selected. Look at the similarities and differences between/among the works in your group. Be sure to ask yourself, "so what?" and try to answer that question. This will help you to focus your discussion. Be sure to use plenty of specific Assignmentples from the texts you choose to support your ideas.

Develop a topic of comparison that is relevant to the texts you have chosen to write about

Contact me and discuss your proposed topic before taking the Assignment.

State your topic of comparison in a clear and complete manner at the start of your essay.

Develop your ideas into a coherent essay of 800 - 1000 words.

Use plentiful, specific references to the texts you are writing about to support your main points.

Make sure your essay has a point (e.g. an answer to the reader's question, SO WHAT?)

Write your essay in clear, correct English.