Paper Topics | Fall 2011 | Paper 1
Due Saturday, September 10th, 5 p.m., in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Maximum Length 1000 words
Translator Robert Fagles observes (p. 491) that one of the longest recurrent passages in The Odyssey is the account of Penelope's weaving and unweaving of the shroud. This story is told first by Antinous in Book 2, lines 101-22; then by Penelope in Book 19, lines 153-75; and finally by Amphimedon in Book 24, lines 139-61. After studying closely all three of these passages and reflecting on the different contexts in which the story is told, select one of the three accounts and argue for you own close reading of it, including what information it yields about the speaker's character and motivations, about his or her audience, and about the particular spin given to the story in the instance you have chosen. You might also consider how your chosen passage contributes to or complicates the meaning of The Odyssey as a whole.
In Hum 110, you may not use generative AI tools. You may not use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini to brainstorm or generate ideas, to summarize or paraphrase the ideas of others, to compose content, or to revise or substantially correct your work. (Tools that automatically flag spelling or grammatical errors as you write are allowed, but not tools that offer suggested revisions or completions of your sentences.) Violations of this policy will be considered academic dishonesty and reported as academic dishonesty.