PAPER #1: Pick a Goddess

Due Date: 10/23. Late papers will be downgraded.

Length: 4-5 pages (typed, double-spaced). If secondary sources are consulted, use MLA documentation (online) and add a separate "Works Cited" page.

Grading: 17% of final grade; based on substantive content, insight into your material, focus and organization, quality and appropriateness of your evidence, documentation (if needed), grammar.

Topic:

Select ONE of the following goddesses or related goddess-pairs and discuss 3-4 of the listed literary texts as examples of revisionist mythmaking by modern/contemporary writers constructing alternate models of empowered female identity or updated versions of goddess myths to address the concerns of modern/contemporary readers.

As you study your selected texts, develop a solid thesis about your topic--some conclusion you have arrived at--and make sure you cite lots of examples and details from the texts to support and illustrate your thesis and sub-points. And make sure you discuss and explain your evidence.

For an example of a short article on revised goddess myths, read Averno by Louise Glück (online).

Eve and Lilith

• Ursula K. Le Guin, She Unnames Them
• Judith Plaskow, Lillith Eve and Adam in Eden
• Edith Dame, Lilith, I don’t cut my grass
• Carolyn Kizer, Fearful Women

Bee Poems/Goddess Melissa

• Sylvia Plath, The Bee Meeting
• Sylvia Plath, The Arrival of the Bee Box
• Sylvia Plath, Stings
• Sylvia Plath, The Swarm
• Sylvia Plath, Wintering
  
  
• Mary Oliver, Honey at the Table
• Mary Oliver, Spring
• Mary Oliver, Happiness
• Mary Oliver, The Honey Tree--scroll down the page
• Mary Oliver, May--scroll down the page
  
  
• Anne Baring, Bee Song

Demeter and Persephone

• Rita Dove, Persephone, Falling
• Rita Dove, Mother Love (scroll down the page)
• Rita Dove, Persephone in Hell
• Rita Dove, Hades’ Pitch
• Rita Dove, Wiring Home
• Rita Dove, The Bistro Styx
• Rita Dove, Demeter Mourning (scroll down the page)
• Rita Dove, Lost Brilliance
• Rita Dove, Demeter, Waiting
• Rita Dove, Missing
  
  
• D. H. Lawrence, Bavarian Gentians
• Kathleen Raine, Transit of the Gods
• Carolyn Kizer, Persephone Pauses
  
  
• Eavan Boland, Pomegranate
• Louise Glück, Pomegranate(scroll down the page)
• Louise Glück, Persephone the Wanderer
• Louise Glück, A Myth of Devotion
• Louise Glück, The Myth of Innocence
  
  
• Carol Ann Duffy, Demeter

See also Organizing your Paper and Plagiarism and Typing Directions and MLA style/format.

PAPER #2: Goddess Theme

Due Date: Mon., 11/23

Length: 8-10 pages (typed, double-spaced), plus "Works Cited" page. For secondary sources, use MLA documentation (online)

Grading: 34% of final grade; based on substantive content, insight into your material, focus and organization, quality and appropriateness of your evidence, documentation, grammar.

Topic:

Select one of the following topics and write a focused, organized paper which smoothly and meaningfully weaves together three types of information: 1) Background information on the appropriate goddesses from our Baring textbook (for instance, the pre-patriarchal and patriarchal "history" of the goddess/myth); 2) at least one secondary source listed on our "Resource Page" or scholarly article/book chapter from the library (you may agree or disagree with them); and 3) four to six poems listed below.

Pick one of the following:

• Goddess as Muse: Discuss how the patriarchal metaphor of muse-as-mistress/lover is revised by women poets to more accurately describe their sense of how they draw upon an alternative feminine or maternal source of poetic inspiration.
  
  
• The Dark Goddesses: Why are modern women writers drawn to them? What imagery is used to capture the sometimes ambiguous quality of that attraction? How do the dark goddesses aid modern women in dealing with aspects of life?
  
  
• Goddesses Lost and Recovered: Discuss the historical/mythological indicators of the goddesses' early status, how/why they were distorted or demoted by patriarchal culture, and how modern poets have recovered or reinvented those goddesses.

As you study your selected texts, develop a solid thesis about your topic--some conclusion you have arrived at--and make sure you cite lots of examples and details from the texts to support and illustrate your thesis and sub-points. And make sure you discuss and explain your selected poems ("evidence") in some detail. Use standard MLA documentation to acknowledge all those sources.

Poems--select 4-6 poems, depending on length.

• Amy Clampitt, Athena
• Amy Clampitt, Medusa
• Ann Stanford, Medusa
• Robert Hayden, Perseus
• May Sarton, The Muse as Medusa --(scroll down the page)
  
  
• Lucille Clifton, The Coming of Kali--(scroll down the page)
• Lucille Clifton, Kali, Queen of Fatality
• Lucille Clifton, Calming Kali--(scroll down the page)
• May Sarton, The Invocation to Kali
  
  
• May Sarton, The Return of Aphrodite--(scroll down the page)
• May Sarton, The Phoenix Again
  
  
• Judith Wright, Ishtar
• Denise Levertov, Song for Ishtar
• Denise Levertov, The Goddess
• Denise Levertov, To the Snake
  
  
• Olga Broumas, Artemis
  
  
• Judy Grahn, Grand Grand Mother is Returning
• Judy Grahn, They Say She Is Veiled--(scroll down the page)
• Amy Lowell, The Captured Goddess
• Alicia Ostriker, Everywoman Her Own Theology
• Marge Piercy, The Common Living Dirt--(scroll down the page)
  
  
• Marge Piercy, I Saw Her Dancing --[Yemanja] (scroll down the page)
• Audre Lorde, Call
• Audre Lorde, A Woman Speaks--[MawuLisa?]
• Audre Lorde, The Winds of Orisha
  
  
• Paula Gunn Allen, Grandmother Spider
• Paula Gunn Allen, Grandmother
• Pat Mora, Coatlicue's Rules: Advice from an Aztec Goddess
• Ana Castillo, Coatlicue’s Legacy

See also Organizing your Paper and Plagiarism and Typing Directions and MLA style/format.

GRAD. STUDENT PROJECTS (students registered for Engl. 755)

In addition to the two papers listed above, students registered for graduate credit (Engl. 755) will complete two Summary Reports and a paper on an additional literary text:

Summary Reports (written and oral)

Each student will select two topics listed as "REPORTS" on the Reading Schedule, write a 3-4 page (typed, double-spaced) summary of each article, and give the class a short oral summary of its key points. To do a good job on this assignment, you may need to review the articles several times and annotate them. Before your oral report, review your summary paper several times so that the material is fresh on your mind.

NOTE: Remember that “summary” does not include making personal responses to or evaluative judgments on the article. The main goal is to be factual, accurate, and informative.

For the WRITTEN REPORT, the introduction should include the author and title of your selected article and several sentences summarizing the overall thesis/point of the article. (Essentially, your thesis will be the same as the author’s thesis.)

For the body of your WRITTEN REPORT, divide the scholarly article into about 4-5 significant points it makes in its body section. Summarize those points and some of the evidence and reasoning the author uses to support those points. You will need to write in a compact, concise style so that you can pack in as much information as possible in the fewest words possible. Make sure you give the second half of the article the same attention that is devoted to the first half of the article.

For the conclusion of your WRITTEN REPORT, summarize your article’s conclusion, which may be mostly a brief restatement of the author’s overall thesis or what significance the author emphasizes in his/her conclusion. You may not need more than one sentence to cover this.

Possibly no quotations will be needed in your summary, or perhaps quote a few particularly well-chosen words or phrases, maybe a sentence or two at most.

WARNING: When quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing, it is important that you remember a few basic rules that will help you avoid plagiarism. See Plagiarism.

For the ORAL PRESENTATION, do not read your report to the class. Talk to your classmates for 10 minutes (on the assigned date, please). The purpose of the oral report is to provide the class with some additional information or ways of reading our goddesses, so try to make it understandable in terms of the students sitting there listening to your talk. Explain the article’s thesis and key points. Refer the listeners to several key scenes or passages that illustrate those key points, and be ready to explain the connections.

You may use a short outline for your ORAL PRESENTATION—a couple words to remind you of each of the key points and examples you want to remember to cover.

Additional Paper for Engl. 755

Read one of the novels listed below and write a 6-7 page (typed, double-spaced) paper analyzing the function and meaning of the goddess themes/images in that novel. While your focus will be on the goddess themes/images, remember to relate them to the novel as a whole--how the goddess material "fits in" with the rest of the novel.

CHOICES: Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God; Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony; Toni Morrison, Beloved or Paradise; Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine; Flora Nwapa, Efuru. If you want to write on another novel, get the instructor's permission first.

While secondary sources such as scholarly articles are not required for this assignment, if you do consult any, remember that you MUST incorporate them smoothly and meaningfully into your paper and document according to MLA Style. It could add to your paper to include some information, for instance, from our Baring textbook or the "myth" article on our Resources web page (see Report #1 on our Reading Schedule) or to cite some material from a scholarly article on the goddess in your selected novel, but keep the main focus on your own analysis of the topic.

Please review the information in the following links. Those criteria apply to this paper also.

See Organizing your Paper and Plagiarism and Typing Directions and MLA style/format.

Focus and Organization:

All essays, long or short, should include these three basic parts:

Introduction:

Introductions in short papers should be short--maybe 4-5 sentences long (in a long paper, perhaps 2 paragraphs long). Begin with some general statement about your topic (if you are going to write about the significance of the settings, get the word "settings," plus the author and title, somewhere in the opening sentence). Perhaps provide some pertinent background, or explain how your topic will enrich our understanding of some aspect of the literary text, or briefly indicate some point of scholarly contention or divergent interpretations of the literary text or some aspect of it.

Most of the introduction will be your own writing, but it is all right to include short paraphrases/quotations, properly cited, of course.

End the introductory paragraph with your thesis statement. Remember, your thesis is what the rest of the paper will be about. Do not phrase it as a question, but rather as an assertion--your overall conclusion about what your paper adds up to.

Body of Paper

Since you can't talk about everything at once, sub-divide your thesis/conclusion into 4-6 sub-points. Those sub-points will form the topic sentences--what you have to say about that subject, the point you want to make in that paragraph. The topic sentence should be placed at the beginning of the body paragragh

WRITING TIP: It is often effective to arrange your sub-points according to the Order of Climax--begin with your second-best sub-point followed by your weakest sub-point and then work your way up to your best sub-point at the end so that the paper finishes on a strong note. Whatever order you use, always end with your strongest material.

Each topic sentence should be followed by lots of specific details and examples and short quotations, etc., from your texts, as well as your explanation/analysis of that information. After each quotation (even one quoted word), insert a page number in parenthesis, as well as the author's last name if it is not already stated in the text before the quotation. Avoid long quotations in short papers. It is often much more effective to work a quoted word or short phrase into your own sentence.

NOTE: I hate skimpy paragraphs that are only 1-2 sentences long; put some meat on those bones--another 5-7 sentences of details and examples and explanations, please!)

Conclusion

Conclusions in short papers should be short--maybe 3-4 sentences long (longer papers can support a somewhat longer conclusion.)

Begin the concluding paragraph with a re-statement of your opening thesis/conclusion--but in language very different than was used in the introduction. In a couple more sentences, refer to your topic AS A WHOLE-- why it is significant and worth studying, for instance, or finally, what it all adds up to.

NOTE: In the conclusion, do not repeat your sub-points
--much too repetitious in a short paper!

Avoiding Plagiarism

WARNING: Whenever you need to use material from another source in your paper, it is important that you remember a few basic rules that will help you avoid plagiarism:

• Summarized/paraphrased material must be in language very different from the original.
• Quoted material must be in exactly the same language used by the original.
• Quotation marks must be inserted around all quotations. If you have a quote-within-a-quote, use a combination of double and single quote marks (see me for assistance).
• Cite a source for ALL summarized and paraphrased and quoted secondary material (articles on your topic, etc.).

Typing Directions:

• Use font "Times New Roman" size 11 or 12.
• Double-space EVERYTHING, including set-off quotations and "Works Cited" pages.
• Include one-inch margins on all sides.
• Indent first line of all paragraphs by five spaces. Don't insert extra spacing between paragraphs.
• Place your last name and page number in top-right corner (1/2 inch from top).
• On the first page, in the top-left corner, put your name, your instructor's name, the class name and number, and the date--all double-spaced.
• Below the date, in the center of page, add a title.
• PROOFREAD--typing errors count as grammar errors.

MLA Style:

See this short summary of MLA style: Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format (scroll down the page to locate the sub-heading links), supplemented by MLA Updates 2009. Together, they give the basic "rules" for in-text citation and bibliographies, including how to cite electronic sources.

See also an example of Basic Paper Format (scroll down the page) and an example of a Works Cited Page.

Also check out MLA Style: Frequently Asked Questions.

For more detailed information on MLA style, consult a hardcopy of the "official" MLA Handbook.