Text below the jump here if you can’t open the pdf.

Due: Tuesday, MAY 11

May be handed in in class or submitted by email in a DOC or RTF format. Note: Your email submission only “counts” if you receive a reply back from me saying I got it. As stated in the syllabus, any late submissions are marked down 10 points per class meeting.

Please format your essay as follows. Your essay should

• Be typed, double-spaced, in 12 pt. Times or Arial, with one-inch margins on all sides. Please spellcheck and, if you’re not sure about your writing, have a friend read it. I will not mark down for grammar, but clarity is very important.
• Have a cover page with the title, your name, my name, and the date, and have page numbers on each page after the cover page.
• Run 2½–3 full pages, not including the cover page.
• Have all direct quotations, indirect quotations, and ideas from other sources footnoted according to a standard citation style. This is extremely important and failure to do this will seriously affect your grade.

In this case your source will be the poem itself.  Your references to Roland should be by line number, or, if your version is not numbered by line, by stanza. Do not give references to Roland by page number.

You may — but are not required to — use secondary sources that discuss this story as additional resources if you want to. Whether you use additional sources will have no effect on your grade, since I am interested in your interpretations and how well you support them with evidence.

Assignment

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Discuss the role that Christianity plays in the actions of the characters. Is the knights’ faith more important than their chivalry and heroism? How are they related? Give three examples and discuss what these episodes reveal about the characters and about the society in which they live. Consider physical, emotional, economic, religious, or any other factors that these incidents speak to.
2. How are Muslims (Saracens) presented in Roland? Are they simply an embodiment of evil? Give three examples and examine what these episodes reveal about medieval society. Consider physical, emotional, economic, religious, or any other factors that these incidents speak to.

Your conclusion should be the last one-third or so of your essay and relate to the following: How, specifically, does this character reflect what the creators of the story are trying to say about their society?

Remember to think of the saga as a kind of primary source, in which the creators are giving evidence of idea they want to communicate. What their main points in this document, and how is your character being used to communicate them?

Remember that, as always, I am looking for your opinion and how well you support it with evidence; this essay is less about “right answers” than it is about well-supported ideas. Feel free to praise or complain about the author’s style, techniques, or attitude, as long as you cover the points of the assignment described above.

Midterm Post-Review (PDF)

The third reading, for the last class on explorers, will be posted later.

For Thu 4/22, “The Spread of Islam”:
Goddard, Hugh. A History of Christian-Muslim Relations. Chicago, Ill: New Amsterdam Books, 2000. pages 34-48
Reading from Goddard

For Thu 5/13, “Reinventing the Ancients”:
King, Margaret. The Renaissance in Europe. London: Laurence King, 2003. pages 65-67, 71-72, 80-95, 98
Reading from King

Essay #1 (PDF)

The full text is also below, if you can’t open the PDF.

DUE: TUESDAY, MARCH 9
May be handed in in class or submitted by email in a DOC or RTF format. Note: Your email submission only “counts” if you receive a reply back from me saying I got it. As stated in the syllabus, any late submissions are marked down 10 points per class meeting.
Please format your essay as follows. Your essay should

• Be typed, double-spaced, in 12 pt. Times or Arial, with one-inch margins on all sides. Please spellcheck and, if you’re not sure about your writing, have a friend read it. I will not mark down for grammar, but clarity is very important.
• Have a cover page with the title, your name, my name, and the date, and have page numbers on each page after the cover page.
• Run 2½–3 full pages, not including the cover page.
• Have all direct quotations, indirect quotations, and ideas from other sources footnoted according to a standard citation style. This is extremely important and failure to do this will seriously affect your grade. In this case your source will be the epic itself. You may — but are not required to — use secondary sources that discuss this story as additional resources if you want to. Whether you use additional sources will have no effect on your grade, since I am interested in your interpretations and how well you support them with evidence.

ASSIGNMENT
Choose one of the following topics:
1. Choose any of the mortal characters from Gilgamesh and discuss his or her relationship with the gods. Give three examples and discuss what these episodes reveal about the character and about the society in which he or she lives. Consider physical, emotional, economic, religious, or any other factors that these incidents speak to.
2. Choose any of the female characters from Gilgamesh and discuss her relationship with the other charac5ters and their society. Give three examples and examine what these episodes reveal about the character and her femininity as conceived by the creators of the epic. Consider physical, emotional, economic, religious, or any other factors that these incidents speak to.

• Your conclusion should be the last one-third or so of your essay and relate to the following: How, specifically, does this character reflect what the creators of the story are trying to say about their society?
• Remember to think of the epic as a kind of primary source, in which the creators are giving evidence of idea they want to communicate. What their main points in this document, and how is your character being used to communicate them?
• Remember that, as always, I am looking for your opinion and how well you support it with evidence; this essay is less about “right answers” than it is about well-supported ideas. Feel free to praise or complain about the author’s style, techniques, or attitude, as long as you cover the points of the assignment described above.

In choosing books for this course, I did make an effort to keep the overall cost down; the new versions aren’t very pricey, and used versions are available online (see the links at the bottom of the post).

(1) The Ancient History Book:
Robin W. Winks and Susan P. Mattern-Parkes
The Ancient Mediterranean World
Oxford, 2004, ISBN: 978-0-19-515563-1

.

.

(2) The Medieval History Book:
Morris Bishop
The Middle Ages
Mariner, 2001, ISBN: 978-0-618-05703-0

.

.

(3) Gilgamesh:
Andrew George, trans.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Penguin, 1999
ISBN: 978-0-140-44919-8

• Version notes: Penguin has more than one Gilgamesh. I recommend the Andrew George edition because he translated directly from the source. It also has a useful intro. If you get another edition, make sure it uses the Standard Version.
• Although summaries of various sources of Gilgamesh exist online, there isn’t a trustworthy translation of the Standard Version on the web. Since the Penguin edition is only about $12, I suggest you use that.

(4) The Song of Roland:
Glyn Burgess, trans.
The Song of Roland
Penguin, 1990, ISBN: 978-0-140-44532-9

• Version notes: This is a good edition, but most published versions of The Song of Roland will do.
• There are numerous translations of The Song of Roland online, including at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/391

Availability

• All four books are available from Brooklyn College Bookstore, either on person or via their website: http://whywaitforbooks.com
• All four are also available from Amazon and other online retailers—use the ISBNs to search. Also available from the publishers’ web sites. If you order online, make sure you do so enough in advance that you’ll receive the books in time for the assignments.
• Amazon links:
  • The Ancient Mediterranean World: From the Stone Age to A.D. 600
  • The Middle Ages
  • The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Classics)
  • The Song of Roland (Penguin Classics)