Engl 252.F19 – Paper 1

Engl 252.F19 – Paper 1

Sign-Up for one of the following weeks: [maximum of 6 students per week; paper is due by 11 pm of date specified. Late papers will be accepted up to 3 days late, with a 5 point deduction for each day late.

Submit electronically on Poly Learn Your paper must be submitted as a Word doc. No other format will be accepted.

1. Oct. 4^th [Beowulf, The Song of Roland]
2. Oct. 11^th [Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]
3. Oct. 18^th[The Song of Roland; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]
4. Oct. 25^th [Dante, Inferno]
5. Nov. 1^st [Dante, Inferno]
6. Nov. 8^th [Dante, Inferno; Beowulf]

Length: about 3 pages [650-750 words; quotations from primary texts are not included in word count; Works Cited is not included in word count.]

Format Guidelines:

• include your name, course id [i.e. Engl 252.01], Paper 1, date submitted in upper left hand corner, single-spaced
• double space text of paper
• use standard 1” margins [do not justify margins]
• use one of the following font styles: Calibri-11 or Times New Roman-11
• indent to signal a new paragraph; do not skip a line between paragraphs
• number your pages—top right with your last name [Curiel 1].
• give your paper an appropriate, relevant, informative, unique title [not Paper 1 and not the name of the work you’re using]
• use MLA 8^th edition format guidelines for all in-text citations and Works Cited

The Task:  Exploring the enduring presence of medieval motifs.

A motif is an element that recurs through an individual work and through a genre. It can be an image, a scene, or a narrative element that repeats through a work and helps to develop a specific theme or idea.

For this paper, choose a motif that is present in one of the medieval texts we have read, and that has an important role in developing the main character’s status as a hero.

Identify one specific passage demonstrating that motif.

Avoid using passages that we have discussed in-class.

Choose a passage that will allow you to show your own ability to explore the deeper levels of meaning.

Do not use outside sources for this assignment.

1^st — Explain how that motif functions in the work, using the passage selected as your main source of textual evidence. [This should take 2 paragraphs]

2^nd – Discuss 1 or 2 literary devices (imagery, symbolism, metaphor or simile, meter and rhyme, etc.) used in the passage to develop deeper levels of meaning in the passage. [1-2 paragraphs]

Conclude with a fully developed paragraph in which you reflect on the significance of that motif’s role in the work as a whole.

Some examples of common motifs in medieval heroic literature:

Setting out for a battle or journey

The boast or taunt

Descent to the ‘under world’

Putting on armor

The arrival of the monster or adversary

The moment a battle begins

The death of the adversary

The death of the hero

The celebration of the hero’s success

Return home

The preceding list is not exhaustive. You can use an event or motif not listed as long as it meets the criteria of the prompt.

Remember—the most important part of your paper is presenting and explaining your own thoughts about the meaning of the primary texts—not retelling the story and not presenting someone else’s insights.

*Writing about literature involves making interpretive claims that require textual evidence with appropriate inclusion of context as support.

*Writing about literature is a form of analysis that involves examining the parts that make up a whole, the relationships between the part and the whole, as well as between different parts.

*Literary analysis is not plot summary, simple observations, or vague generalizations.

*The goal of literary analysis is to deepen the reader’s understanding of a work.

This is not a research paper. I am interested in your reading of the primary text, not your ability to use the Internet to track down someone else’s reading of the text.

You can use comments and insights from the Introductions of the books, but you must give clear credit to each source in the text of your paper, and you must clearly show how your own reading moves beyond the material from the Introduction.

If you are using ideas from the Introductions or any other source that you have already consulted in the process of reading the works (like Wikipedia, Spark Notes, GradeSaver, Shmoop, study.com or any other website that students use to facilitate reading) be sure to clearly acknowledge it in your paper. [Note—including the source in your Works Cited is not enough to acknowledge your use of that source; you need to clearly and specifically identify the idea in the text of your paper that comes from any outside source, as well as including that source in your Works Cited.]

Failing to give clear credit to any source for an idea, fact, or interpretive claim is plagiarism and will result in no credit for the assignment.