E-mail response topics

Anyone who has missed a response, or who has received a low grade on a response, may do a response this week to make up the missing assignment or to replace one with a low grade.

Compose your response in a word processor, writing 400-450 words, then e-mail it as an enclosure to your discussion leader. Include "CH Response" and your section number as the subject of the e-mail. Please note: if you are using a recent version of Word on Windows, do not save the document in .docx format; use .doc or .rtf instead. Don't forget to include your full name!

1. Beowulf falls naturally into two parts: 1) the hero's fights against the Grendelkin in his youth, and 2) his final combat against the dragon when he is an old king. Some have argued that the poem is simply two separate stories stuck together. Do you agree with this view? What arguments would you present to support this claim? Alternatively, what arguments would you present in support of the unity and integrity of the poem as a whole? Are both parts needed?

2. Both Beowulf and Hrothgar sound like pious monotheists when they speak; Grendel, a very Germanic monster, is presented as a descendent of Cain. How important are such Christian elements in the poem? Are they merely a superficial attempt to make an inherited Germanic, heroic tale more acceptable to the Christian Anglo-Saxons? Or do these elements play a more essential role in the poem, contributing to its themes and significance?

3. Why does this poem focus on combat against monsters, instead of on human warfare, as the Aeneid does? Is the poem merely a heroic folktale or do the monsters, and Beowulf's fights against them, represent something beyond themselves? What, for example, is the meaning of Grendel? Or the dragon?

Week Twelve: Due Tuesday April 14 before lecture via e-mail.

Compose your response in a word processor, writing 400-450 words, then e-mail it as an enclosure to your discussion leader. Include "CH Response" and your section number as the subject of the e-mail. Please note: if you are using a recent version of Word on Windows, do not save the document in .docx format; use .doc or .rtf instead. Don't forget to include your full name!

Choose one:

1. What continuities with the philosophy of Plato do we encounter in Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy?

2. What, according to Boethius, is the nature of fortune? What is the relationship between fortune and happiness? What is true happiness?

3. Leave aside the real-world problems that would result if society adopted policies based on Boethius' claim that evil-doers are best punished by leaving them to pursue their evil designs. Consider only the theoretical implications of his view of the nature of evil. How convincing do you find his ideas? Where have we encountered similar views? How compatible is his view of evil with the teachings of Christianity?

Week Nine: Due Tuesday March 24 before lecture via e-mail.

Compose your response in a word processor, writing 400-450 words, then e-mail it as an enclosure to your discussion leader. Include "CH Response" and your section number as the subject of the e-mail. Please note: if you are using a recent version of Word on Windows, do not save the document in .docx format; use .doc or .rtf instead. Don't forget to include your full name!

Choose one:

1) Analyze the Aeneid's presentation of women in the first eight books. How does the poem present women? Would you say that the poem has a single message about women, or does its presentation of them vary from one book to another? Be sure to back up your position with references to specific episodes.

2) Compare Aeneas' wanderings and the events in the first six books of The Aeneid to The Odyssey. What correspondences can you identify? What do you think is the purpose of these correspondences? Why has Virgil modeled so much of his story on Homer?

Week Seven: Due Tuesday Mar. 3 before lecture via e-mail

Compose your response in a word processor, writing 400-450 words, then e-mail it as an enclosure to your discussion leader. Include "CH Response" and your section number as the subject of the e-mail. Please note: if you are using a recent version of Word on Windows, do not save the document in .docx format; use .doc or .rtf instead. Don't forget to include your full name!

Choose one:

1) Explain what Socrates means when he says that "human wisdom is worth little or nothing." This is a strange statement for a philosopher or 'lover of wisdom' to make. Can you reconcile this statement with his pursuit of wisdom? According to Socrates, what is the highest level of wisdom that he has achieved?

2) What is the "examined life"? How does Socrates live it? How could someone live it today?

3) Why is Antigone so defiant in her interactions with Creon? What does she want? What goal is she trying to achieve? Reread her speeches in lines 931-1021, particularly her explanation in lines 995-1004 of why she never would have buried a husband or a child of hers in defiance of the people's will.

Week Six: Due Tuesday Feb. 24 before lecture via e-mail

Compose your response in a word processor, writing 400-450 words, then e-mail it as an enclosure to your discussion leader. Include "CH Response" and your section number as the subject of the e-mail. Please note: if you are using a recent version of Word on Windows, do not save the document in .docx format; use .doc or .rtf instead. Don't forget to include your full name!

Choose one:

1) What according to Aristotle (part XIII), is a tragic hero? To what extent does Oedipus match this description? Is this enough to make him a tragic hero, or is this status dependent upon other aspects of the play as well?

2) Basing you answer entirely upon the play, upon his words and actions, and upon what others say about him, describe Oedipus' character. What kind of man is he? Is he really heroic as well as tragic?

3) Explain how the concept of "tragedy" in Greek drama differs from the modern use of the word "tragic" to describe disasters and accidents. Is this an important distinction that should be maintained? Or is the blurring of this distinction that we see in modern discourse acceptable, or even preferable? Why?

Week Two: Due Tuesday Jan. 27 before lecture via e-mail

Compose your response in a word processor, writing 400-450 words, then e-mail it as an enclosure to your discussion leader only. Include "CH Response" and your section number as the subject of the e-mail. Please note: if you are using a recent version of Word on Windows, do not save the document in .docx format; use .doc or .rtf instead. Don't forget to include your full name!

Choose one:

Before you think about these questions, first divorce yourself entirely from your personal belief system, whether it be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, or whatever. Do not present the teachings of any church or "scientism" as your response. Ponder each question as if you were approaching these texts for the first time.

1) Stories of creation often reveal a lot of information about the cultures in which they appear. What does the story of the creation and fall in Genesis 1-3 tell us about early Hebrew culture? For example: What does it say about the role of women? What is the meaning of the "fall"? What kind of god do we see in these stories, and what is his relationship to his creation?

2) Compare the flood story in Gilgamesh, (pp. 108-113) with the story in Genesis ch. 6-9. How similar are these two stories? What would you identify as some of the key differences? Are these accounts merely different versions of the same story, or are they distinct, separate stories? (If you don't have a copy of our text yet, you can read the Gilgamesh account of the flood in Tablet 11)

3) Compare the creation and fall of Adam to the creation and civilizing of Enkidu (Gilgamesh, pp. 62-69). How similar are the two accounts? What are their key differences? What do they say about natural innocence and civilized experience? (If you don't have a copy of our text yet, you can read the story of Enkidu in Tablet 1 and Tablet 2.)