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Study Guide
Aeschylus, Oresteia

Guides to the text:

Task:

Read one (1) play from the Oresteia trilogy.
Compose a paper, 2 pages in length, that addresses an aspect of the tragedy you choose.  Suggested topics appear on the guides to the individual tragedies. 

The primary purpose of the assignment is to encourage you to read the text closely and to engage the ideas contained in it. The secondary purpose is to help you practice your analytic and writing skills in a highly disciplined manner. Be concise. Organize your thoughts coherently.

Required:

1. Identifiable thesis sentence.
2. Topic sentences at beginning of each paragraph.
3. A title - something meaningful, not "Paper One."

Spelling, grammar, and everything else you learned in English 111 counts.

Strategy: Read the text.
 
  • All the action scenes (murders, flight) take place off stage. The compelling scenes are the confrontations, spoken face to face. There is no trickery, no deception, no lying (except where surprise is necessary). Instead we see real points of view in conflict. There is no possibility of compromise between these points of view, and consequently the characters clash.
  • We do not want to hear about hubris or tragic flaws or other high-schoolish interpretive devices. Instead, read the text. Build your argument upon what you see there yourself. Support your argument with frequent and specific reference to the text.
 

Write on whatever topic you think you can argue best.

  • Formulate an argument: "Clytemnestra deserved to die, and here's why."
  • Support with lots of evidence from the text.
Citations: Footnotes, endnotes, bibliography are not necessary.  Simply indicate the line number in parentheses:  (A, 1272-84) means Agamemnon, lines 1272 through 1284.  Use L for Libation Bearers, E for Eumenides.
Rules: Two pages
Typed in a font not smaller than 10 point
Double spaced
One-inch margins all around
Grades:

Papers will be evaluated on their

  • reasoning
  • clarity
  • organization
  • use of specific evidence from the text

Do NOT merely summarize the text.

Writing: When you finish reading the tragedy, write a first draft where you try to develop your ideas for the first time. After completing the first draft, set the paper aside for a while. Think critically about your own work, and if possible have a friend or family member critique your draft. Then write the paper a second time. Before turning the paper in, proofread it for errors. And above all, use your spell checker.
Due: Tuesday of Week 3 (Feb. 2) at the beginning of class. Upload via Blackboard.

 

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