Analysis of an Interpreter

Choose one interpreter of ancient Greek myth and analyze this interpreter's discussion of myth. What is the definition or nature of myth for this interpreter? In answering this you should consider the following related questions: What does myth signify? Is myth the discourse of temporal or spatial others? Is myth the discourse of hidden wisdom or foolish irrationality? What are the presuppositions of this interpreter? How does this interpreter relate myth to specific cultures or times, art, history, nature, religion, or language? What picture of the past or the process of tradition does this idea of myth presuppose? You should support your analysis with specific evidence from the writings of this interpreter, but you should not simply summarize the interpreter's argument. Rather, you should critically assess how this interpreter's writings provide the answers to the analytic questions you are asking. Ideally, you should take an interpreter's reading of a single myth or set of myths and show how this interpretation illustrates the interpreter's understanding of myth as a discourse, but you may also analyze a broader discussion of myth instead of the treatment of a single tale. I would recommend that you check your selection of an interpeter with me before you embark on your project, and I would also be happy to provide suggestions for anyone who is having difficulty selecting an interpreter. You might look at the readings in Feldman & Richardson or on Blackboard Course Documents that I have not assigned for a specific class, since these readings would provide a reasonable choice of an interpreter.

The papers are due at noon, Friday, November 6, and should be around five pages long (not counting the bibliography or any title page). The papers should be typewritten, double-spaced, with reasonable fonts and margins (e.g., my default font and margin settings are Garamond 12 point with 1 inch margins). Please number the pages and staple them together. Please ensure that your name is on at least the first page, if not in a header on every page. Also on the first page should be my name, the course title, and the date (single-spaced).

Be sure to cite the sources for your information carefully and accurately so that a reader could quickly and easily check your reference. For ancient primary texts, you should whenever possible cite the book and chapter numbers or the poem or fragment numbers for your quotations, rather than the page numbers from the modern editions. You should, however, give the modern edition from which you drew your translation in your bibliography. For modern secondary sources, you should provide page references for the source in the notes and then give full bibliographic information in the bibliography. You may use any of the standard bibliographic formats as long as you are consistent.

Please ensure that your paper is free from errors of spelling and grammar. I find such errors terribly distracting. The spell-checker in most word processors is useful, but you should proofread the paper yourself as well. You might try exchanging papers with a classmate and proofreading each other's papers. Another person can often catch the errors you have missed.

Not only are late papers anti-social, but they will be penalized unless you have obtained an extension from me before the day on which the paper is due. For each day the paper is late (including weekend days!), the grade will be lowered by one step (e.g., from 3.7 to 3.3).