World Masterpieces section 2, 2009
Study guide for the first exam: essay section.
(Click here for the study guide for the multiple choice section.)
Study Questions to prepare for the essays
You will write one essay. The most important thing is to clearly define and state a thesis, and then support it with well-organized evidence from the texts we have read. In most cases there is no one “correct” answer, although there may be answers that are clearly “wrong” in the sense of not being supportable by evidence. The point is not to reproduce someone else’s argument, but to think through the issues for yourselves. Be sure to end your essay with a conclusion, even if it is only a sentence that says, “In conclusion, I have argued that . . . .” The best conclusion somehow answers the question “so what?”, showing why it matters that you have proven what you have proven.
If you are thinking about looking at internet or library sources (etc.) to help you prepare, consider the following crucially important note!
It should not be necessary to use any resources other than our texts and your class notes in preparing for the exam. However, if you do choose to go to the library or the internet for help in preparing, consider a couple of things.
1) Don’t assume everything you find on the web is right or true or useful. I say this first because the kinds of questions we are considering don’t always have absolutely true, simple answers, and second because the quality of materials on the internet varies enormously.
Consider the type of site you are using. Who made it for what purpose and for what audience? If it is something posted by a student, a hobby classicist, or a student in high school or below, it may not offer anything you couldn’t have come up with yourself. (Or then again, it may!) If it is something posted by professionals for professional audiences, it may offer more detailed analysis than will really do you any good, perhaps confusing you more than helping you. Things posted by professors for students may be the most useful, but even there, remember that they may have been written for very different audiences, for different courses, on different levels, with different emphases.
2) Most important, remember that any use of the words or ideas of another person without proper attribution is plagiarism, which is morally wrong and can get you in big trouble with your university. Plagiarism is not an issue with information that is readily available from a wide number of sources, such as the dates of Virgil’s life or the names of the characters in The Iliad. But if you rely heavily and directly, for example, on the way Professor X defines epic or Professor Y discusses the “Homeric question,” you could get yourself into trouble. Proper citation on an in-class essay exam like this would not require the exact url or web address of what you are citing, but a fairly specific attribution like “on Professor So-and-So’s website at the University of X.” And if you have somehow memorized the exact words of some source, don’t forget the quotations marks!
So if you choose to use the web (or the library) to help you study, remember:
• consider your source,
• use what is useful and ignore the rest,
• don’t rely heavily and directly on any one site, unless you are prepared to cite it properly in your essay.
These remarks should not be taken as suggesting, requiring, or encouraging you to use library and internet sources. On the contrary, I urge you not to use such sources. Again, all you really need is your texts and your notes and your brain.
Now, the study questions . . . . NOTE: The following questions are intended to help you prepare for the essays. There may be slightly fewer choices on the test, and the questions may be worded slightly differently. You cannot, therefore, focus on just one question in preparing for the test. It would probably be a good strategy, however, to choose three or four questions to think about in detail.
1. Trace the development of the narrator figure from Homer through the later works. How does the figure or function of the narrator change and what are different authors able to do with the the narrator? One way to start thinking about this topic is to consider how the different narrators begin their epics and how they differ in the way they invoke the muses.
2. Discuss the ideas of justice and revenge in the Oresteia and in other works, if appropriate. Can you trace a development? Do the works themselves thematize revenge and justice? Do they offer “messages” about how to deal with issues of guilt, punishment, revenge, atonement, etc.?
3. “Tragedy” was defined in and for classical antiquity by Aristotle. Explain his definition and how it applies to at least two ancient plays.
4. Several of the works we have read may be regarded as belonging to the genre of “epic.” Of course, that genre can be defined in various ways. Offer a working definition of “epic” and then discuss at least three of our works as epics. Can you identify trends and developments in the genre?
5. How do the various works we have read present love and sex? What sorts of feelings and behavior are seen as right and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate, beneficial and harmful or dangerous? What is marriage? Can we define generalized ancient attitudes? Do attitudes change under the influence of Christianity, for example? Discuss the presentation of love and/or sex in at least three works.
6. Early in the semester we began tracing a development in how literary texts mean. Homer’s epics were said to be primarily or entirely surface; the story is the story and has little or no deeper, higher, or hidden meaning, it has been argued. By contrast, Virgil’s epic clearly had layers of meaning. The virtues of Aeneas represented the virtues of Augustus, and so forth. Write the history of this development in several of the works we have read.
7. Many of the works we have read make a point of connecting themselves to earlier works in various ways and for various purposes. Discuss the phenomenon of intertextuality with reference to at least three works we have read, showing how they are connected to each other and to what purpose.