Category Archives: Posts from your prof

Options:

The Odyssey:

1. Book 22, lines 461 – 476 (page 3, Beginning “Now the thoughtful Telemachus began speaking..” ending: “…lopped off his hands and feet, in fury of anger”)
2. Any section of the bed scene (pages 339-341, Book 22 lines 150- 295 – don’t do the whole thing, choose a portion)
3. Passage of your choosing from Books 20 – end

The Penelopiad:

1. Pages 81-82 (Beginning of chapter “Waiting”)
2. Page 89 beginning “Despite all this busyness…” through page 90 to “he got home again”
3. Page 139 beginning “The songs claim…” to page 140, “unending sorrow” (in Yelp of Joy)

The Tale of Genji:

-Passage of your choosing

Take a look at this background info. You’ll need it to answer the next discussion question (posted under assignments). It’s a great, interactive and generally non-boring website! You can watch a brief film, explore the map, read background info, etc. My discussion question asks that you relate this background information to any portion of the assigned reading (like I said – more details under ‘course assignments’).

Take a look!

http://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/the-tale-of-genji/

Here’s how to go about re-writing your close reading if you want to do so. The deadline is strict and no re-writes will be accepted after it (no exceptions will be made on this) so be sure to get it done by then if you would like. You are under no obligation to re-write!

1. Anyone (no matter what grade you received) can re-write. Grades can only go up (or stay the same) , they won’t go down.

2. You may re-write one or both of the close readings (it’s up to you).

3. In order to re-write you MUST come meet with me at some point BEFORE the submission day. If you do not meet with me then I will not accept your re-write. The meeting can be at any point in your writing process (you may even have the whole re-write completed) just be sure to bring it with you. We will just spend about 10 minutes discussing the comments I gave you, the reason for the grade, the changes you’ve made, etc. It’ll make the re-write better, I promise.

4. If you submitted your paper late you may still re-write however the late paper “penalty” will still apply.

5. Submission Guidelines: Re-writes are due IN CLASS Monday, May 4 in hardcopy form (note: re-writes will not be accepted by email. No exceptions). **You must staple the re-write to the original (this means, if you received comments by email, you need to print out my version with comments).** All these components must be in place for the re-write to be accepted. In other words, if your commented version is not attached then you will not receive credit for your re-write.  

I strongly recommend everyone who is re-writing visit the writing center! If I asked you to do so in your paper comments then I especially urge you to!

You’re reading an excerpt from Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad for the Monday class after break. It is a modern (published in 2005) adaptation of The Odyssey, told from Penelope’s perspective (a voice we don’t hear much of in The Odyssey).

Info on the text (from the link below): in the text, Penelope tells her personal story and also her feelings about her husband and his famous exploits. The maids also get a voice in Atwood’s play — telling of their unfair treatment. Throughout the play, the maids act as the chorus, explaining their situation and “pleading their case.”

Atwood’s style is very different than that of The Odyssey. She chose to call the play a Cabaret because, as she explains, “it isn’t a play in the usual way, nor is it a ‘Musical’ in the usual way.”

More Info here! 

And here’s an interview with Atwood

A link to the writing center:

http://writingcenter.baruch.cuny.edu/

We’ll be talking about these briefly in class, but here are a couple handouts to help you in completing your close readings. Look at these (closely)!

Here’s a list of potential ways to tackle your close reading. Remember – this is NOT a checklist! Do not do everything on this list, that will end up in a shallow analysis. Rather, go in depth with one or two of these things:

Close Reading Tips

Here’s something I wrote based on errors / issues I’ve seen in the past. Take a look!

how to write a close reading

And two sites with information on literary devices:

Information about / Definition of “metaphor”

Other literary devices

Here are some more passage options to consider for your close readings. Remember, you can also do a passage of your choosing – just run it by me first!

Oresteia: There are a few options for The Oresteia included on the assignment sheet, so I haven’t added more here.

Duchess:

1. Any of Bosola’s monologues are an option! (For instance, Bosola’s speech at the end of Act 4 or his speech at the end of Act 5, scene 2)

2. Any or all of the Duchess’s speech/convo with the Executioner in Act IV, scene 2, lines 201-224

3. Ferdinand’s speech, act IV, scene 2, lines 258-277

4. Ferdinand’s speech, Act 3, scene 2, lines 88-109

The Odyssey: 

-Any or all of the opening lines (lines 1-25) of the book.

For this paper you do not need a Works Cited page. You just need to know how to properly do in-text citations and the correct way to format your paper. Do not use any block quotes in your papers. In other words, keep all of the quotes within your paper under 3 lines.

Some Important Rules:

*All titles must be in italics!

*Remember to show where line breaks fall (in The Odyssey, The Duchess, and The Oresteia) with slash marks

*Paper formatting: Paper must be in 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins all around (check your margins!) 

Here are the basics for in-text citation

How to cite Shakespeare (same rules/format apply to The Duchess)

A really helpful website on how to use quotes and properly cite (you can ignore all the info concerning how to write a Works Cited page)

How to cite The Odyssey: 

The Odyssey should be cited in-text simply by indicating book and line number, as for example (4.227-9). This means book 4 lines 227 through 229. You only need to add further information if it is not clear what is being cited. For example, if you are comparing passages from the Iliad and the Odyssey, you might cite the texts as (Iliad 3.28-30) or (Odyssey 5.67-70).

How to cite The Oresteia:

Cite by line number — i.e. if you’re looking at a section that goes from lines 15 through 25 you would cite like this “line line line” (15-25).

For this week’s online assignment you’ll need to know what Jacobean drama is (consult the course assignment page for further info). We’ll be discussing Jacobean drama in class, but here is a helpful link. Remember – The Duchess of Malfi is a quintessentially Jacobean drama — so over-the-top violence, incest, jealousy, revenge! Those are the kinds of characteristics typical of Jacobean plays.

Here’s an article from The Guardian that provides some helpful background:

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/jan/20/jacobean-tragedies-changeling-duchess-malfi

“On the face of it, few things seem more remote to 21st-century Britain than the world of Jacobean tragedy: a shadowy universe in which sexual and political betrayal combine with incest, insanity, forced marriage and ferocious honour codes that would not disgrace the 19th-century mafia (many are, indeed, set in Italy). Their cast-lists are often an alphabet soup of semi-southern European names; their belief systems seem impossibly remote. And that’s to reckon without the bizarre plotting. The Duchess of Malfi is tortured by her brothers for having remarried, then strangled along with two of her children; one brother runs mad. In The Changeling, the heroine loses her virginity to her disfigured servant – the ironically named De Flores – then is forced to pimp out her maid to the man she herself is in love with (the maid dies in a fire). In ‘Tis Pity, a sister becomes guiltily pregnant by her brother, only for her heart to be cut out and skewered on a dagger. Women Beware Women culminates in a killing spree administered by poisoned incense.”

Polis: City/citizenship:  In the 5^th century BC, during which Aeschylus was writing, Athens’ political identity was in flux.  Ancient commentators describe a series of violent shifts of constitution—between oligarchy (rule by a few), tyranny (rule by one man), and democracy (rule by the many).

 The violent political upheavals of this period were accompanied by an intense, public and sophisticated debate about the processes and principles of change as they were taking place.

 Indeed, the institution of tragedy and The Oresteia in particular…can be viewed first as part of this continuing public debate on internal political developments. 

 Citizenship implied first and foremost a duty and obligation to the polis.  That a man should act to benefit his polis and that a polis benefited from a man’s individual success are repeatedly asserted ideals.  In Athens, only adult males could be citizens.

 Oikos: Household, implies the physical house, the idea of home, the household members.  The oikos is the site of the private life of the citizen.  The Oresteia, which starts in the home of one family and moves to the law-court of the city traverses the tensions produced by these two sites of authority in fifth-century culture, the oikos and the polis.

 Dikē: Possesses a range of meanings, but can be defined generally as “justice.” It is a very important and pervasive word in 5^thcentury Greece, and its meaning ranges from abstract ideas of justice or right, through retribution and punishment, to legal senses of law-court and law-case.  This term is used throughout the Oresteia to gloss the narrative of revenge, and ultimately the three plays trace the movement from the Dikē as revenge to Dikē as legal justice.