Ancient literature of the Mediterranean world had a common theme: displaced people. From this tragic and difficult circumstance, Greek and Egyptian cultures created literature, social rituals, heroic ideals, and even religious beliefs. We write our first paper with a very simple question: what did people of these cultures get from their stories of displaced people?
It’s always important to start preparing a paper with a research question in mind. Although this is a feature of social science methodologies and course assignments, humanities inquiries have the same purpose–to ask and explore questions. You’ll find that the assignments you’ve completed up to this point offer many chance for you to “practice” your own inquiry. Hopefully, you’ll see the critical paper as an opportunity to refine and develop the ideas you’ve already shared.
Critical papers are a great academic discipline because it forces you to toggle back and forth between your own writing and the document you’re studying.The outline below is provided to give you the framework for your inquiry but it is only a frame for letting you create and be adventurous. It is also structured to let you move through the 3 works we have read in the module, the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles; the Greek epic poem The Odyssey by the author known as Homer; and the Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe.
An advantage of writing a comparative paper is that you can discover and show the subtle differences between the value and purpose of displacement in each text. Comparisons are stronger when you are able to articulate the groundrules for the literary form you are talking about, such as tragedy or epic, or to observe the cultural differences between a Greek version of a displaced hero and Egypt’s narrative of an ordinary man. As you’ve seen, Greek tragedies served a civic purpose but also served a ritual function for ancient Greeks that was rooted in a violent religion; Greek epic poetry were exercises in memory that allowed people to tell and retell the story of wars and heroes that they would otherwise forget. In the narrative of Sinohe, you see a circular narrative that reminds us of the importance of death and burial in ancient Egypt. These broad differences help you look for and find ideas and passages that are distinct to each book and reflect the larger purpose they play.
In other sections of the paper, you will be more precise, citing passages and offering close readings that illustrate your idea, or better yet, inspire and grab you. You may have been taught that citation of passages is tantamount to providing proof, but there is another way: they are resources and springboards from which you take ideas you could not have found on your own. A great rule of thumb when preparing to write is to read. and to pass over the passages that explain things in your head. When you’ve found that passage, mark it down and start writing.
The following outline is your guide for reading and writing.
I. Introduction (1/2 page)
Write this last! Figuring out your thesis is a terrible way to start writing. But knowing what should go in the introduction is a reminder of why you are writing.
1. State your topic–the recurrent theme of human displacement, the time frame–ancient Greece and Egypt–and the area–Mediterraean world–of the literature you are studying.
2. Names the authors and the books you are examining,
3 Tell us the purpose of the paper, the research question you are investigating: the values and beliefs the works of ancient literature create from their stories of human displacement :
4. The method you will be using: a comparison of the texts, and an analysis of their representation of the displaced person.
5. The conclusion you draw from comparison. This is your thesis. So this is why you write this last. You want to figure out what you’ve discovered by comparing them.
II. Plot summary of Oedipus (1/2 page)
Give yourself one paragraph to summarize the plot of the play, including the important role that the rules of Greek tragedy play. Do this in one paragraph so you don’t spend the entire paper summarizing and then ending the paper with something like, “by the way, this is what I think.” So we take care of the plot summary in a paragraph and move on.
III. Analysis of Oedipus (1 page)
Analysis means, in Greek, to “take apart.” This means that you’re taking the text apart and retelling the plot based on your ideas and perspective. Review the discussion forums and the Collaborative writing exercises to pull your broad ideas together. What uses does tragedy make of the story of a displaced person? Does it show the power of larger forces over human initiative and excellence? Does it show the terrible truth of great people? Does it show that the voice of citizens–the chorus–must triumph over the heroic individual? Or that society must expel something terrible to purge, itself, and thrive? Once you are free of plot summary, you can figure out for yourself what the play accomplished through its dramatization of Oedipus’s displacement.
Center your analysis around 1 or 2 quotations. They are the source of your analysis. You don’t have to put them in chronological order? Their order is set by the priority of your ideas.
Within your analysis, follow these guidelines to center the passage: start your paragraph a topic sentence that states why you consider this passage important and what you think it shows; cite the passage word for word; and then provide your commentary or interpretation on what it means to you. This is called a close reading.
If you need to continue your commentary into a new paragraph, go ahead. But when you want to raise a new point, start a new paragraph, organized around a passage.
IV. Plot summary of The Odyssey (1/2 page)
Once again, summarize broadly the storyline of The Odyssey as you’ve read from the assigned Books. Use the rules of the epic poem–a long, endlessly retold verse that allowed people to recite and remember a war that displaced thousands of people. That’s also what the epic is about, as the first half shows the struggle of Odysessus’ family and Odysseus himself to remember him and hold his place in their home; the second half shows his endurance, his human ingenuity and arrogance, and his violent heart that leaves him victorious after a bloody purge.
V. Analysis of the Odyssey (1 1/2 page)
What do you find heroic about Odysseus? What kind of heroism does Odysseus represent? Keep in mind that is not a superhero, though he is a favorite of gods. He is alone, nearly forgotten, out of sight and out of mind. Ironically, people all over the Mediterranean know his name and retell his story but nobody knows that this displaced person is Odysseus. His son has to argue that he matters; he has to tell the story of his own misfortunes so that people give him credence; he returns home under cover as a homeless person and only reveals himself as the Odysseus when he is prepared to retake his home.
As you did with Oedipus, choose two passages that show your ideas and opinion about , using the division between the two themes in the two days of reading, that show the importance of displacement to epic heroism .
VII. Argument: Comparison of Oedipus and Odysseus for Odysseus’s Heroism (1 page)
In this section, you’ll be pulling together your ideas about these two works of Greek literature. In Greek tragedy, the story of the displaced person has particular and unique purpose. In Greek epic poetry, the story has another. Compare the fates and qualities of the two characters and evaluate them according to your own value system. As a person witnessing human displacement today, is this the kind of story you would tell? Are these the values you would want to rally people around to deal with this situation? Be honest and judgmental. You can use two well developed paragraphs for this comparison and contrast an you don’t have to use citations.
VIII. Conclusion
End the paper using your thoughts on The Tale of Sinohe to draw a final comparison between ancient Greek literature and value systems and the Egyptian version of the same theme. If there are differences, what does this show you? Zoom out and think big about the differences between our time and this time, and between cultures.
When you’ve found all the comparisons and differences between the three representations of displaced people and have made your evaluation, you have an argument. What is a thesis? An argument in capsule form. When you’ve finished the paper, go back to the first paragraph and summarize all your conclusions as a thesis statement.
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