For your final creative project, you have a lot of leeway with what you might do, but here are the four basic tasks you need to do

1. Analyze one of the works we have read for the rhetorical/stylistic moves that it makes, as well as its structure (Annotation will help you here).
2. Use these observations to create your own work that is about more contemporary materials/subjects (or other materials of interest to you). For example, you might create your own Pillow Book about important events/settings in your life (like a Pillow Book about being a student at Baruch).
3. Explain, in two pages, how you used these rhetorical moves from the original text, giving examples from your own work in comparison to the original text. What were these rhetorical moves, and how did you use them in your own work?
4. During the final exam time itself, present a piece of your creative work (and, if time, some explanation of why you made the choices you did).

You might do this individually or as a group: for example, if you do a scene from a play, you can do this project with a few other people (no more than 4 to a group, though). If you do this individually, you’ll have about five minutes to present during the exam itself; as a group, you’ll have more.

• Note on group work: If you work as a team, you need to provide evidence of the separate roles that you played. If, for example, you put together your own “updated version” of the Kokinshu, each person should be responsible for covering a “theme.” (the Kokinshu selections we read, for example, focused on the seasons and love, though obviously you might choose different categories).
• It should go without saying, but: what you write in these projects should be your own work in your own words. If you are bringing in quotes or even just paraphrasing ideas from outside sources, they should be cited. I’ll say it again: even bringing in someone else’s ideas that you find online is plagiarism if you don’t cite your source (because it looks like you’re claiming that idea as your own, and not acknowledging that you got the original idea from elsewhere). Look up how to cite using MLA for texts outside the Norton: there are hundreds of sites online that can help you find the proper way to cite a source. Since you are handing this in at the end of the semester, if I catch plagiarism, I’ll just email you about it, give you the zero, and factor it into the grade; there won’t be time for you to explain yourself, and moreover, by that point you should have had time to look up what academic integrity policy at Baruch is, as well as ask me any clarifying questions.

Suggestions for what you might do (I’ll add some more in coming days, and you can come up with your own too, as long as you vet them with me).

Create your own Kokinshu:
The Kokinshu, as we began to discuss, is an anthology that uses the technique of association-and-progression to organize the poetry in it (each “series” of poems sticks to one theme, and there are similarities in images between one poem to the next, yet with each poem, there are subtle changes that take us through a “progression”—from the first hints of spring to the height of spring to the fading of spring; or the first hints of a love affair to the consummation and height of the romance to its fading). Observe how this rhetorical technique works in The Kokinshu and then compile/create your own version using the association-and-progression technique. Instead of the poems in the Kokinshu, however, find other poems and arrange them according to a theme where the poems close to each other share similar phrases/words/images but that, when you zoom out, has a larger narrative with a “beginning, middle, and end” (as in the Kokinshu, where poems about the seasons and about love progress to tell a story or to take us through the seasons). You do not have to necessarily use poetry; you might also use other short works in succession. For example, you could take news snippets/Tweets about a particular event or topic, and place them in an order where each Tweet/snippet in proximity shares similar phrases or ideas, but arranged so that they show a progression of some kind (this could work particularly well with political events, as news coverage often uses short phrases to encapsulate larger ideas or topics). You can even use pieces/quotes from the Norton anthology (what we’ve read or other texts) that circle around a particular theme (like duty/right action). Be creative in your materials, but be sure to follow the rhetorical moves of the Kokinshu as you do so.

• Note that this option might apply for The Thousand and One Nights too: you might create a “frame tale” plus some interlocking stories (this would likely be a good “group” option where each person writes a part or parts of a story, so it’s not too overwhelming a project).

Create your own Pillow Book: While the Pillow Book is in the genre of the “pillow,” or notebook/diary that records daily observations (so-called because it would likely be placed near one’s pillow), it includes several different kinds of entries (lists, characterizations of people, stories/anecdotes, etc) and that sometimes it seems to record actual events and sometimes it seems to embellish them. Observe this text for its rhetorical moves as a diary that records the happenings of Heian court life (at least, what Shonagon asserts is important to notice) and write your own “pillow book” that uses her rhetorical moves, style, attention to detail, etc, to describe and characterize a setting that is important to you. This setting could be Baruch college from your perspective as a student, city or suburban life from your perspective as a resident (particularly NYC life), or your neighborhood and its residents/family/friends from your perspective as a part of that community (or even as someone who feels on its outskirts sometimes!). Feel free to be creative with your setting, but be sure to use the moves that Shonagan does to write your own “pillow book.”

Created an annotated edition of a part of a class text: Often while discussing the epics, plays, and poetry in the Norton, we’ve referred back to either the introduction to the text or the explanatory footnotes on the bottom in order to understand better what is going on in the text. While we’ve noted that these footnotes are helpful, they are usually limited to “historical/cultural context”; there are other kinds of footnotes and comments that might be helpful to a reader, such as a gloss on the possible meanings of a word, or an explanation of what a tricky line might mean (and we’ll see this more when we get to Othello, with footnotes that help us to untangle some of the difficult language in the play). My challenge to you is to create an “annotated edition” of a piece/part of one of the texts we read with an audience of Baruch students in mind (particularly Baruch students who might be entering a Great Works course next semester), with an introduction (which can be short—a few pages) and footnotes. What, do you think, a Baruch student would want to know about this text, or should know about this text as they read it? What would you have wanted to know? What kinds of footnotes, or what kind of introduction, would you have found helpful? You might make footnotes that deal with historical/cultural context you research, footnotes that define difficult words/note possible meanings to different words, footnotes that point to important parallels and structural details, footnotes that give a few different interpretations of a passage, footnotes that note parallels in other texts we’ve read, footnotes that point to other more contemporary sources that are useful in understanding the text (like a link to a Youtube performance of the play or song that relates to the text in some way)….be creative, and think about what would be interesting or useful to a future student in this class (or to your past self). Even things like reaction GIFs might be fun here! The best version of this project would use several kinds of footnotes (one that just defines words and gives a little bit of historical context, for instance, is not likely to do as well), and demonstrate that the writer really thought about how to reach their future Baruch audience; you should feel like you are a kind of expert on the text by the time you’re done. With this project, you still need to include a 2-page explanation of why you made the decisions that you did, and make sure to include a works cited page for the research you do.

• A good tool for this would be Google docs, because it would allow a group to work on annotating collaboratively. Check out other collaborative writing apps here: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/wgw/faculty-resources/collaborative-writing-tech-resources/
• If you do this as a group, it would probably be best to decide on “jobs” for each person (one person is in charge of historical context annotations, for example). Remember you still need to do a 2 page explanation of what you did and why—what your role was (which is ultimately a protection for you against one person doing a lot of work and another person being less diligent).
• You will get a zero if you take footnotes from another annotated text, or if your footnotes/introduction plagiarizes from a source outside your own brain (again, you can use that source, but cite it, please, and show what you’re adding to what the source says). That’s still plagiarism. Don’t do it.
• The above bullet point is especially true if you do Othello: there are several annotated editions out there, and it may be tempting to look at those ones for ideas. Avoid even looking at them for “ideas,” because it may be difficult to get those ideas out of your mind (though of course when reading, use the footnotes to understand the play). You will get an zero on the project if you take footnotes from any edition of this play, because that is plagiarism.

Perform a scene from Sakuntala: The Norton preface to Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection notes that the play is now rarely performed, even with the revived interest in theater in India. According to the Norton, this is because “despite its remarkable survival and continuous influence over some 1,500 years, and its wide appeal to readers around the world, Kalidasa’s play seems better equipped to reveal its beauty and complexity as ‘drama’ rather than ‘theater’” (875). In other words, the play is better to be read than to be performed. Yet we did get to see a performance of it this semester, that sought to get across the emotional ups and downs of the narrative. I think, therefore, that the Norton’s assertion is something we might contest! For this option, perform a scene from Sakuntala, keeping in mind that the play, for each act, intends to depict a different rasa, or emotional state in its pure essence, by “blending” the characteristics of an emotional state with “subsidiary states” like anxiety or lovesickness and with “physical signs associated with” each emotion (873; see p. 875 for which rasa goes with each act, as well as the subsidiary emotions). Your goal is to perform this scene and embody the appropriate rasa in it, in whatever way you believe best will convey these emotional states to the audience. You might use exaggerated gestures, masks, music, etc, to depict this emotional state: there’s a lot of creative possibilities here, but keep in mind that your goal is to really get these emotions across to your audience through multiple modes.

• Alternate performance options:
  • Do a similar thing with Medea, this time potentially focusing on masks and performing the scene using masks and body movement/language.
  • Do a scene from Othello, focusing on highlighting, in how you stage the scene and say the lines, some aspect of the text that you and your group got through careful, close reading that you think the class might miss on a cursory reading or general class discussion (note, though, that this would require you doing some reading in advance, as we are reading this play in the last two weeks of the semester).
• Propose a performance option to me (perhaps one that involves researching the history of how the play would be performed, or one that involves bringing in a more modern-day context/modern music and visuals that you think will help us gain insights into the original play)

(note: you do not have to memorize your scene–you can read it aloud from paper–but you shouldn’t just recite your lines. That’s liable to get your group a C- or below. This goes for all performance options).

Reflection on reading/interpreting strategies

Write an nearing-end-of-semester reflection on what you have learned about how to approach, read, and interpret texts, and what you have learned about strategies for reading texts from different cultures and periods. In this reflection, you should mention at least two-three specific strategies and approaches that you can take with you beyond this class; you also need examples from at least three texts where you show how you use/have used this strategy (for example, if you talk about interpreting by comparing translations, you should actually compare two translations of a selection of text; if you discuss reading aloud, you should use an example from a text where reading aloud helped you to hear something new in the text that you missed, and what it was that you noticed through reading aloud; if you mention reading for structure, you should give an example where noting a parallel helped you to notice or understand something about the text, and what it is you understood). This reflection should be at least 1000 words long

This will be due by Monday 11/30 (in class or, if by email, by 11:59pm). Note that this is worth ten percent of your grade.

Short paper 6: Structure II (in preparation for final project).

Structure, as we’ve said, is one of the most useful interpretive tools, but also often difficult to see if you are not used to reading for it. This can mean simple repetition, but it can also mean direct parallels being drawn (through repeated images, colors, comparisons, speech, and linguistic echoes). If a parallel is drawn we need to pay attention. We’ve done a short paper on this before: this time, I want you to attend to structure with your final project (whether an annotated edition of a text, or a creative project based on a text).

As a reminder: Parallels are not always positive; they may be highlighting differences (or, the difference may be calling our attention to a change in character, or a change in the intensity of the situation). For example, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight begins with Gawain in King Arthur’s court, and it ends with Gawain in King Arthur’s court, but the return to the court has a much different tone and we see the court in a different light. To do more than point out parallels, you need to think about where the passages occur. As parallels build up, they play a part in making sense of the narrative and how we are supposed to interpret it. For example, lots of objects are described as alternately “green” and “gold” in Sir Gawain: how are these objects connected, are the colors just chosen at random? And Gawain is woken by the lady of the house, while the man of the house goes out hunting, three times, but there are subtle and important shifts in each “bedroom scene” and “hunting scene.” You can consider: has the meaning of an image (or whatever the parallel is) changed based on context?

Please write a response paper of 1-2 pages on Sir Gawain or Othello, or whatever text you are using for your final project, in which you make an argument about how the text is structured (in other words, what looking at the structure allows you to see about the text’s meaning), how it deploys parallels, and to what end. The difference this time: Consider, at the end, how you could use what you observe about these structural details to create your own version of this text, or explain how you are using these details to create your own version of the text. Be sure to make an argument and use textual evidence  (this means quote the text) to support it, again showing me your annotations

This will be due by December 7 at the latest;  I’d encourage you to use some of the space to tell me about what you’re doing for your final project.

For short paper #5, repeat what we’ve practiced in short papers #2, #3, and #4: Pick a short passage (a few lines or sentences) and close read it, making sure to annotate your text and provide evidence of that annotation. This time, however, I want you to find 1-2 other translations of the passage you chose, and compare them to each other: how do these different translations seem like and unlike each other? What changes in vocabulary, tone, and even content do you see, and what is significant, to your mind, about these changes? What effect do you think one translator is going for versus another (for example, is one using more exuberant language to create a melodramatic effect)?

In 1-2 pages, present your observations of these differences and similarities and what you think is significant about them.

Note: if you can find a translation into another language you also read (such as French or Spanish), that’s great too–you might compare these translations across languages).

Links to a few alternate translations:

The Pillow Book: You can “match up” your lines in the Norton with the translations below by finding the correct journal entry number.

Translation by Ivan Morris: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic787484.files/eas97ab_pillowbook.pdf

Snippets from Arthur Waley’s version (which is itself abridged: he only translated 1/4 of the work):https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng2800hmwc/?page_id=222

A book in Baruch’s library with different translations of the Pillow Book:  Worlding Sei Shonagan (PL788.6 .A1995 H46 2012)

Meredith McKinney, the translator of our version in the Norton, discusses her translation process: http://www.kyotojournal.org/the-journal/in-translation/on-translating-a-classic/ 

Kokinshu: 

Translations by Thomas McAuley:

Book 1. Spring

Poem 1:http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0321.shtml 

Poem 2: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0322.shtml

Poem 3: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0323.shtml

Poem 23: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0331.shtml

Poem 25: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0332.shtml

Poem 26: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0333.shtml

Book 2: Spring

Poem 69: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0346.shtml

Poem 70: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0347.shtml

Poem 71: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0348.shtml

Book 11: Love

Poem 553: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0591.shtml

Poem 554: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0592.shtml

Book 13: Love

Poem 635: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0641.shtml

Poem 657: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0647.shtml

Poem 658: http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/waka0648.shtml

Translations of Kokinshu poems by Larry Hammer: http://lnhammer.livejournal.com/182467.html

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:

Jessie Weston’s translation: http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/sggk_weston.pdf

W.A. Neilson’s translation: http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/sggk_neilson.pdf

James Winny’s translation: http://online.hillsdale.edu/file/great-books-101/week-11/Week-11—Jackson-GB-101-2014-Readings.pdf

A.S. Kline’s translation: http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/English/GawainAndTheGreenKnight.htm

(and, if you’re interested, the original Middle English!: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/Gawain?rgn=main;view=fulltext)

Tang Dynasty Poetry: A google search for these poems will lead you to several different translations of the poems we read by Li Bo, Du Fu, Wang Wei and Bo Juyi. Here are a few links:

Poems in Chinese, pinyin, literal English, poetic English

Wang Wei

• Deer Grove: http://chinese-poems.com/deer.html
• In Response to Vice-Magistrate Zhang: http://chinese-poems.com/zhang.html
• http://www.shiku.org/shiku/ws/zg/wangwei.htm (“ANSWERING VICE-PREFECT ZHANG,” “MY RETREAT AT MOUNT ZHONGNAN” and “DEER-PARK HERMITAGE” are all different translations of the one we have in the Norton).

Du Fu

• Qiang Village I: http://chinese-poems.com/d14.html
• My thatched roof is ruined by the autumn wind: http://chinese-poems.com/d08.html

Li Bo

• Question and Answer on the Mountain: http://chinese-poems.com/lb3.html
• Seeing of Meng Haoran at Yellow Crane Tower on His Way to Gaungling: http://chinese-poems.com/lb2.html
• In The Quiet Night: http://chinese-poems.com/lb4.html
• Sitting Alone by Jingting Mountain: http://chinese-poems.com/lb9.html

One Thousand and One Nights:

Prologue/Frame Tale: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/burt1k1/tale00.htm

The Tale of the Donkey and the Bull (the one the Vizier tells his daughter, Shahrzad): http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/burt1k1/tale00.htm

(will try to post others: can Google as well)

Assignment:

For your midterm essay, write a paper of at least 1500 words (up to 1700) that focuses on ONE of  the texts we have read in the course so far, makes an argument about the text, and supports that argument. Your argument should be your answer to a larger thematic question (see possible questions from oral midterm exam, these potential paper topics, which are based on the questions from the oral midterm, or these prompts on Sakuntala/Medea).  In other words, you are a tour guide through the text, making your argument about the text, telling us how to read it and why we should read it that way by giving evidence and interpreting it (telling us why the word, images, structures make us read it in a specific way). This means you should avoid just summarizing the plot: I have read these texts already–I want YOU to tell me HOW I should read them!

While this paper should focus on one text, you should also compare different VOICES in the text (if you are making an argument about Medea, you should compare her perspective to that of Creon’s, the nurse’s, Jason’s, etc, in order to make your point). Additionally, in your second to last paragraph, you should briefly bring in one of the other texts from the class and discuss how this 2nd text’s take on your topic illuminates something about the values of the culture in the text you have focused on for your paper (for example, when discussing duty in the BG, you might bring in Medea’s ideas of what is owed to the family and to oaths to highlight a different perspective on duty as well as what the BG’s conception of duty says about the culture/society it comes out of. Or, you might compare the BG’s conception of duty to Sakuntala’s–for both, duty is defined as dharma, but the two texts present dharma in different ways).

You may want to focus on expanding an argument or exploring a question that you addressed in one of your short papers.

Short paper no. 4 is your draft of this paper. See specific prompt for it at the bottom of this post.

Breakdown of what to include:

Your paper must have a clearly stated thesis in the first paragraph and you must develop your argument in a logical, persuasive manner throughout the rest of the essay, support your points with textual evidence, and conclude with a paragraph that summarizes your findings. Thus, your paper should contain the following elements: argument, evidence, interpretation of evidence. It should have the follow elements: introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion. I have attached a further explanation of what I mean by these things, and I have attached a template you can use to fill in the blanks and create an argument.

• Introduction (last sentence or two: your argument)
• Body paragraphs (topic sentence + evidence + interpretation of evidence)
• Conclusion (restate points + so what)

Structure:

Here are two possible structures for your paper. Both are valid; it depends on your style:

1)Argument-driven: In your introduction paragraph, introduce a research question you seek to answer and give your answer (thesis statement) at the end of the paragraph. Use your body paragraphs to prove that thesis statement.

2) Inquiry-driven:  In your introduction, introduce a research question you seek to answer; use your body paragraphs to explore this question; come to a conclusion/answer (thesis statement) in your conclusion paragraph.

Format:

• At least 1500 words (no less: you will lose points if your paper is any shorter). Provide a word count: Do not hand in handwritten assignments to me; stapled/paper clipped
• Title and Page numbers
• Bibliography and citations in MLA format
• Times 12 point font
• 1-inch margins
• Double spaced; No extra spaces after paragraphs
• Fully edited: free of typographical, spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors
• Formal language: avoid “you,” “well,” and other slang words.

Resources:

Fill in the blanks to make an argument

More argument templates with examples

Notes on argument, evidence, interpretation

***

Draft for analytical paper, focusing on structure (short paper number 4): due 10/14 or 10/19.

In our short papers so far, we’ve asked questions, tried to pose answers to these questions (as arguments), and tried to use textual evidence to support/build on those arguments (evidence and interpretation). The last thing I want you to focus on before your oral midterm and analytical paper is structure, which is one of the most useful interpretive tools, but also often difficult to see if you are not used to reading for it. This can mean simple repetition, but it can also mean direct parallels being drawn (through repeated images, colors, comparisons, speech, and linguistic echoes). If a parallel is drawn we need to pay attention.

Parallels are not always positive; they may be highlighting differences (or, the difference may be calling our attention to a change in character, or a change in the intensity of the situation). For example, Sakuntala features the king spying on another character in a garden in Act I and Act VII, but the scene in Act VII has a much different tone and resonance. To do more than point out parallels, you need to think about where the passages occur. As parallels build up, they play a part in making sense of the narrative and how we are supposed to interpret it. For example, Gilgamesh and Enkidu are both described at different points as being shaggy and wild, but it means something different, and has different weight, when we see Gilgamesh described this way after Enkidu’s death. You can consider: has the meaning of an image (or whatever the parallel is) changed based on context?

Please write a response paper of 1-2 pages on the text you want to work with/write about in your analytical paper, in which you make an argument about how the text is structured (in other words, what looking at the structure allows you to see about the text’s meaning), how it deploys parallels, and to what end. Alternately, make the argument you want to make in your analytical paper, and use what you’re saying about structure to help you build/support it. Be sure to make an argument and use textual evidence  (this means quote the text) to support it, again showing me your annotations

Oral midterm examination:

For your midterm, you are going to pick one of the following questions (or a question of your choice, as long as you vet it with me) and one character from one of the texts we have read so far. Then, you will answer the question you have chosen from that character’s perspective–what would be that character’s point of view on the question? How do they enact that point of view–and are they successful in enacting it (do their actions match their perspective)? Consider what investments the character has in the issue, how the character might define concepts in the question (for example, what is “love” for Enkidu and Gilgamesh vs for Medea?), and what biases and concerns they might have.

For the midterm itself, you will present to me, one on one, the perspective of this character using passages from the text (you should bring a one-page sheet with passages from the text you plan to use). You will have 3-4 minutes to make your claims about the point of view of your character in relation to this question, so you should be prepared to be direct, to point to  and quote specific passages to find evidence and to prove that your passages support your claim by using the words/imagery/tone in the passage.

Questions (if there are other questions you want to address, suggest them to me): 

1. Right action: How does your character define what is right in complicated situations–how does your character determine what is the right thing to do? How do we learn what is right based on the character’s actions/beliefs and on the text?
2. The city/the city vs. the natural world: To your character, is the city something worthy of celebration, and why? If your character has some doubts on this issue, what are some critiques of the city, especially in light of what it does to nature and human relationship to it? What is the text trying to show about the city, and/or about the natural world, through your character?
3. Quest: For your character, what is worth seeking out, and why? How does what the character seeks define him/her? What is the text trying to illuminate, through your character and his/her quest?
4. Duty: If duty is what is “due,” then what defines what is due for your character–society, responsibility to another individual, honor? How should the character show, demonstrate, or fulfill his/her duty, and what are some complications that get in the way of fulfilling duty? How does the character respond to, fulfill, or fail to fulfill their duty/duties? What is the text trying to illuminate through your character’s relationship to (and response to) her/her duties?
5. Love: How does the text/character present love, and what is it? According to your character, does love occur between people, or does the character define love in another way (i.e., love of duty): what is worth loving, and why, according to your character, or the text through your character? According to your character, or the text through your character, what does he/she owe to what/who he/she loves, and why–what are the obligations of love?
6. Heroism: How does your character define heroism and being a hero, and why? (Alternately, how does your character define being a good leader and why?). What do you think the text is showing about being a leader/hero through your character?
7. Role of women:  What is the role of women as seen through your character’s eyes: what power/agency do the women have, and/or how do they see themselves potentially as disempowered or disadvantaged? What is the text trying to illuminate about women and their roles in society through your character? (Note: the answer to this question shouldn’t just be “women are treated as lesser”–dig deeper than that. Women have agency and authority in interesting ways in some of the works we’ve read).
8. Lesson: As we’ve seen, texts often seek to educate their readers in some way (emotionally, as future citizens of a city-state, through the education of an irresponsible king, etc). What lesson or lessons do you think are imparted through your character (through his/her actions, behavior, and general presence in the text)?

Practice beforehand: 

1. In-class practice/modeling through class debate (9/30); possible in-class practice for 10/7.
2. Group-work (10/14), where you will bring in some passages you want to refer to and, in groups of three, give each other feedback on the claims and ideas you have.
3. During midterm itself (10/21), you will sit with your group and use the time you’re waiting in to practice with each other. I’ll give 5 minutes at the top of class for the first person on the list to practice.

Due for midterm: 

• Wednesday, 10/14: Come prepared with your character, question/theme, and some passages chosen for group feedback.
• Midterm date itself, 10/21: Bring your passages on one sheet of paper with annotations (underlining, highlighting, notes in the margins, even an outline on the side of your passages), and, of course, yourself and your voice.

Grading: Since this is not a public speaking course per se, I will not be judging you on things like how often you say “um,” and if you’re a little nervous, that’s okay.  Here is what I will judge you on:

A= While you demonstrate that you understand concepts we covered in class, you also have made your own independent claim and brought in new textual evidence, or taken textual evidence we have discussed and looked at it from a different angle; you competently close read the textual evidence you quoted/mentioned to prove your claim(s).

B= You restate concepts we covered in class, but you have shown some effort to bring in a new idea and passages. You make an attempt to close read the textual evidence you quoted/mentioned to prove your claim(s).

C= You restate concepts, ideas and passages that we have covered in class, and you do it competently. You do not, however, bring in anything new, in terms of claims or passages

D= You briefly restate some ideas we have covered in class, but some claims may be inaccurate. You rarely refer to the text itself.

F= You do not state ideas we have covered in class, or are very vague about these ideas, and you make claims that may be inaccurate or too general, without referring to the text itself.

Notes:

• Note that in the case of a text like The Hymn to Aten, the “character” you choose might be the narrator.
• We may be able to make more time if some people would be around to do this in my office hours after class OR in the period the room is open before class starts (about 30 minutes before)

Assignment: So far, you’ve had to write a paper that posed questions about an ambiguous moment or moments in a text we’ve read, and a paper that tried to pose an argument based on addressing one of those questions. For this assignment, we’ll be zooming even more into textual evidence and interpretation. Write a 1-2 page paper about either Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection or Medea, focusing on a few lines of the text (again, try to use lines that you find ambiguous/are open to multiple ways of reading; you should quote these lines), and giving your interpretation of what they mean and why they are important. Pay attention to details (specific word choices, imagery, etc) in your interpretation. At the end of this interpretation, pose an argument that you think your interpretation of these lines could support.   Please do some close reading (of no more than 4–5 lines if possible; however, you may refer back to other lines/phrases in the text in your interpretation), and annotate those lines–again, provide evidence of your annotation in the form of a photocopy or photograph or show it to me in class (and the annotation should not just be you highlighting the lines–make some marginal notes, underline certain words that are important).

(If you want more specific questions to address about either of the plays in order to fulfill the goals of this assignment, click here: More specific questions about Medea and Sakuntala. You will still need to find a passage and interpret it, but these questions might help you to focus your ideas.)

Purpose: Fundamental to making an argument convincing is the use of  evidence to support it. In the case of literary analysis this means quoting the text. However,  for the use of textual evidence to be meaningful in terms of making an argument, you need to explain how the evidence does what you claim it does. That is, you see the language (or  structure or character, etc.) as ambiguous in some sense and in need of analysis to fully explain how to understand what the text is conveying.

Yet it is important to remember that there are multiple possible interpretations for any moment of ambiguity and you are making a case for one of those. Therefore, it is necessary to show what the ambiguity is and then show evidence from the text that supports your interpretation (disambiguation) of that ambiguity. You need to explain how it does what you claim because your audience does not necessarily read the same way you do. Your interpretation is immediately clear to you because you have made the connections in your head, but you need to make them clear to someone else.

Blog hosts should post by 5pm the day before class; respondents should do so before class begins OR while we are still discussing the text in class generally.