Your 1st major assignment for this class will be to offer a thematic analysis of Homer’s The Odyssey as a whole, or of one specific Book of the work, or of one specific element of the work. If you choose to write about a specific Book or element, make sure that you are connecting your analysis of that Book or element to an overarching reading of the work as a whole. Example: analyzing Book 21, in which Odysseus, in disguise, amazes Penelope’s suitors and everyone by stringing the difficult bow and nailing an arrow shot, and connecting your reading of that chapter (in your thesis and body) with your reading of the work as a whole (Book 21, for instance, shows Odysseus’s strength, courage, resourcefulness, and desire to put his family back together). In short, you will provide an independent, interpretive close reading of a text and, through your analysis and textual evidence (quotes and references to elements of the text), you will argue for your analytic understanding of the work and prove your thesis.
The paper will need to be 2-3 pages long (double-spaced), MLA format, plus an MLA-style Works Cited page. The WC page will need to include a correctly formatted citation for your primary source (The Odyssey).
The essay will be centered on your own interpretive/analytical/argumentative claim (your thesis) regarding the work. You will also want to demonstrate that you have engaged with the text; you’re not simply describing what is in the text but engaging with its ideas and explaining how some of the work’s elements help create the themes and meanings in it.
In short, you are to be a critical reader and an insightful literary theorist. Your paper should effectively and convincingly explain what the text is saying or suggesting.
Please see our Course Syllabus/Policies document and see our Course Schedule for other relevant info and dates.
A note on writing about literature
Use the present tense to write about the writing of others, and in this paper, do not speculate based on your feelings or what you imagine the characters would do in a situation outside of the story itself. Stay in the text as much as possible without wasting too much space devoted to discussing “real-life” scenarios, personal experience, or comparisons to other texts outside of the one(s) you have chosen for this essay. Base your analysis instead on the texts themselves, and use plenty of examples as textual evidence to support your points.
Do not summarize the plot or describe a character. Observations are fine way to begin, but you should use those observations to then make an argument about the stories’ interpretation.
Remember: more analysis, less plot summary.
Also, if you are analyzing a character, remember that describing the character is not the same as analyzing him or her and how the author used the character to help create themes and meanings in the work.
Important - Read this before proceeding
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