Global Studies
Summer Assignments
Global Studies Summer Assignments: English
Terminology (Students must define and explain all listed terms related to Greek drama)
Plays (Students must read both selections and complete double entry journal analysis tasks)
Medea by Euripides (Greece)
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (Greece)
Poetry (Students must close read (marginalia) all three selections and answer all related
questions)
“The Wayfarer” by Stephen Crane (America)
“Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold (Great Britain)
“Persian Version” by Robert Graves (Great Britain)
Universality in literature (Students must analyze one of the above plays and come to first day of
class prepared [with notes and text] to complete a literary analysis paper on the concept of
universality)
Textbooks (Available for summer sign-out)
Themes in World Literature (each of the three poems reside within this text)
Plays (Available for summer sign-out, or you may purchase copies)
Medea (For example, this can be purchased for $14.00, postage included, from abebooks.com.)
ISBN 9780812434682
Oedipus Rex (For example, this can be purchased for $4.00, postage included, from abebooks.com.)
ISBN 9781580495936
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Contact Information
I am as thrilled as the other instructors to embark on this new phase of Global Studies with all of
you. Your experience in American Studies has more than prepared you for the rigors of eleventh
grade honors, and this assignment packet is set up based on the assumption that you are all
active learners equipped with the skills to seek and find answers. That said, the assigned texts
can prove challenging. If I find that students are running into similar issues with understanding
or execution of certain aspects of these assignments, I will post additional aides on my teacher
page. Therefore, it is important that you email me with questions or concerns, and check my
teacher page every few weeks for any updates.
Email
[email protected]
Note on Selections
While the bulk of this summer assignment consists of Western literature, the focus of this course
will be global in scope. Given that Greek culture and literary traditions have impacted our own
lives and languages so profoundly, examples of Greek literature make suitable introductions to
this course. Part of the role of this course is to familiarize students with universally known and
accepted literary texts. Their study allows students to obtain access to a cultural currency
invaluable to citizens of the modern world. Medea and Oedipus Rex are examples of such texts.
First Day Back
All summer assignments are due start of first day’s class. Do not ask for an extension, access to a
printer, or come with a thumb drive that has your work on it. You are honors students, and
therefore expected to be able to plan in advance. Procrastination does not have its merits.
Expect to participate actively in all classes.
Expect to be challenged and to have fun!
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Part 1: Medea and Oedipus Rex: Justice and Identity
Greek Drama and Dramatic Irony
For ancient Greeks, theatre was far less about entertainment than exploration of self and society. As a
result, Greek theatre-goers were neither frustrated nor upset by entering the theatrical arena with full
knowledge of a play’s characters and outcome. Dramatic irony was an essential part of the theatre
experience for all spectators, allowing for focus to be diverted from the mechanics of plot to the study of
character and motive. As with all good art, one’s first experience allows for ingestion, while all further
experiences allow for digestion. Greek minds were greatly nourished by the digestive process.
Greek Theatre Definitions
Using the resources within the texts, define the following terms and explain how each function within
Greek drama:
dramatic irony
catharsis
miasma
hamartia
peripeteia
tragic hero
kommos
orchestra
aulos
mask
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Medea and Oedipus Rex double entry journals (see sample entry below)
Both Oedipus Rex and Medea focus heavily on the concepts of justice and identity. For each play, a double
entry journal outlining no less than ten examples must be kept. Five examples must relate to justice, and
five to the nature of identity. Double entry journals allow the reader an excellent opportunity to engage
with the text; they force the reader to question the work, the author, and at times the reader’s own beliefs
and relationship with the elements of the text. Use the following questions and statements as guides
toward exploring the nature of the twin concepts of justice and identity as dealt with by Euripides and
Sophocles. Keep in mind, your responses are just that, your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the text.
1. Is revenge a viable, defensible form of justice?
2. Is it possible to entirely determine one’s own fate?
3. Is revenge an act of madness?
4. What role should guilt play in one’s decision-making process?
5. Is excessive guilt a form of madness?
6. How much of one’s identity comes from within, versus from external factors such as one’s homeland?
7. Are family members an extension of one’s identity? If so, what are the implications of fratricide?
8. Are children an extension of identity? If so, what happens when they die while a parent still lives?
9. Can morality be applied to all acts of murder? Meaning, is an act of murder ever moral?
10. Can an individual be guilty of incest if he is unaware of the existence of a family bond?
11. “All the world’s a stage.”
12. We all wear masks.
Sample Double Entry Journal
Quote
MED. [within] I have endured, alas! I have
Endured-wretch that I am!-such agonies
As call
For loudest plaints. Ye execrable sons
Of a devoted mother, perish ye
With your false sire, and perish his whole
House!
NUR. Why should the sons-ah, wretched
Me!-partake their father’s guilt?
Why hat’st thou them? Ah me!
How greatly, O ye children, do I fear
Lest mischief should befall you: for the souls
Of Kings are prone to cruelty, so seldom
Subdued, and over others wont to rule,
That it is difficult for such to change
Their angry purpose.
Response
1. Medea (Identity and Justice)
Medea sees herself as being a “wretch,” but this is a
result of her husband’s actions. He is cheating on
her and is set to marry another. He has taken the
moral low ground, and yet it is Medea who sees
herself as lesser, somehow. What a strange
reaction, and yet common. When someone insults
me, I feel bad, even though it is the person hurling
the insult that should feel lesser as a result of the
action. Medea’s reaction is extreme! She seems to
be indicating that her sons should be killed in an
attempt to wipe all traces of her husband from the
world. Is Medea temporarily insane? Her sons
seem to be right there, able to hear her saying this.
Unbelievable! And we know that this is not a
healthy reaction based on the horror expressed by
the nurse. Is this a just reaction? What did these
children do to deserve such a fate other than
having being born? Does Medea see herself as a
mother? Is her identity bonded to Jason?
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Part 2: “The Wayfarer,” “Dover Beach,” and “The Persian Version”: The Question of Truth
Oedipus Rex shows us that truth is not always easily identifiable. The following three poems similarly
address the concept of truth. For each poem you must
1. Read the poem aloud. This step is as valuable to gaining an understanding of your poem as
any amount of annotation and dissection.
2. Know the poem. Look up and define any unfamiliar words, allusions, or references; these
simple elements often provide the key to understanding a poem’s meaning.
3. Perform a close-read. Underline, circle or highlight key elements to address through
marginalia. Use this packet to perform this task.
4. Answer the related questions in complete, thoughtfully organized, clearly stated, and concisely
written sentences on a separate piece of notebook paper. Do NOT type these.
Close Reading Example
“Persephone, Falling”
by
Rita Dove
One narcissus among the ordinary beautiful
flowers, one unlike all the others! She pulled,
stooped to pull harder—
when, sprung out of the earth
on his glittering terrible
carriage, he claimed his due.
It is finished. No one heard her.
No one! She had strayed from the herd.
(Remember: go straight to school.
This is important, stop fooling around!
Don't answer to strangers.
Stick
with your playmates. Keep your eyes down.)
This is how easily the pit
opens.
This is how one foot sinks into the ground.
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Stephen Crane, famed author of the Civil War novel Red badge of Courage, is best known for his realistic
fiction, in which he attempts to take the glamour out of heroism and the glory out of war, but his
naturalistic poetry has also commanded attention. Regarding his revolt against sentimentality, one critic
has described his poems as “the ungarnished utterances of primitive man.”
The truth presents problems. For one thing, it is not always easy to discover. Nor, once discovered, is it always easy
to follow.
“The Wayfarer”
by
Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
The wayfarer,
Perceiving the pathway to truth,
Was struck with astonishment.
It was thickly grown with weeds.
“Ha,” he said,
“I see that no one has passed here
In a long time.”
Later he saw that each weed
Was a singular knife.
“Well,” he mumbled at last,
“Doubtless there are other roads.”
1. What is a wayfarer? This wayfarer makes a discovery that astonishes him. What does he discover?
Why is he astonished by it?
2. What characteristics of truth are suggested in this poem?
3. What does the sequence “no one has passed here / In a long time” (lines 6-7) suggest about the
speaker’s understanding of truth in daily life?
4. When describing each weed as a singular knife, what feeling about truth is being conveyed?
5. What is the meaning conveyed by the poem’s last two lines, and what does it indicate about the
author’s tone?
6. Identify the poem’s subject, main theme, and purpose.
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Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) began his literary career as a poet. He turned to literary criticism with his
appointment at the age of thirty-five as professor of poetry at Oxford and later to essays on cultural,
social, political, and religious questions. Strongly influenced by Goethe, Wordsworth, and especially by
ancient Greek authors, Arnold developed his own standards for poetry and wrote poems to exemplify
those standards. His ideas about poetry have remained extremely influential.
What kind of world do we live in? If we were musing on a quiet evening in a room that faces the sea – lights on the
water, the moon making the land glow white – we might feel one way about the universe, just as we might feel quite
differently if we were exposed to winter’s cold or the lashings of a hurricane. But which of our many shifting
attitudes toward this world of ours contains the ultimate truth about it?
“Dover Beach”
by
Matthew Arnold
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
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Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
1. With what kind of scene – tempestuous, serene, ugly, beautiful, or what – does the poem open?
2. What unexpected aspect is introduced at line 14?
3. What do you suppose the poet means by “Sea of Faith” (line 21)?
4. Arnold was profoundly troubled by scientific revelations disclosing a vast, indifferent universe in which
man’s history was no more than an instant, man’s position in the universe far from central. Where does
the poem most clearly reflect the poet’s dismay?
5. Line 34 suggests that nothing is certain in this world. Does the speaker accordingly conclude that no
values – whether of honesty or loyalty or decency or whatever – have meaning? Explain.
6. The mood of the scene pictured in the last three lines of the poem contrasts sharply with how the poem
begins. One scene, the speaker suggests, is only appearance; the other is reality. Which is which?
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Robert Graves (1895-1985) was a poet, novelist, mythographer, critic and historian. Probably best known
as the author of I, Claudius, and Claudius the God and as a survivor and poet of the Great War, he is one of
the great figures of 20th Century English Poetry and Literature. Graves lived in poverty while
struggling to support his ailing wife and four children, all the while paying his way through college at
Oxford. The literary prizes and best-seller status of I, Claudius rescued all from any further incursions of
poverty.
The truth is difficult to recognize and hard to follow. It can appear to be relative, too; in a quarrel, for example,
what looks like truth to one side may not look the same to the other. Consider Marathon – that battle in 490 B.C.
where the Athenians defeated the Persians and, according to Athenian poets and historians, saved all Greece from
foreign conquest. What is the truth about Marathon?
“The Persian Version”
by
Robert Graves
Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon
The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon.
As for the Greek theatrical tradition
Which represents that summer's expedition
Not as a mere reconnaissance in force
By three brigades of foot and one of horse
(Their left flank covered by some obsolete
Light craft detached from the main Persian fleet)
But as a grandiose, ill-starred attempt
To conquer Greece - they treat it with contempt;
And only incidentally refute
Major Greek claims, by stressing what repute
The Persian monarch and the Persian nation
Won by this salutary demonstration:
Despite a strong defense and adverse weather
All arms combined magnificently together.
1. “In wartime, truth is the first casualty. ”Is this the theme of “The Persian Version”?
2. Research and briefly summarize the battle of Marathon.
3. Based on the facts you discover, indicate whether history agrees with Graves’ poem.
4. Cite and examine a modern day event or incident that is viewed differently by two opposing sides. Is it
possible to distinguish the truth of this event? Explain.
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Universality
Central to the role that literature plays in Global Studies is the concept of universality. Despite all
barriers – cultural, gender, geographical, linguistic, etc. - human beings have commonalities that bind us
as a species. Perhaps the most obvious universal is death, as depicted in the above Medieval allegory
Danse Macabre: The Dance of Death, by Michael Wolgemut. While not always matching in terms of
timeframe or region, the literary aspect of this course will mirror its historical and artistic counterparts
through identification and analysis of eight universal themes:
The question of truth
The nature of justice
The meaning of greatness
Fate and free will
Man and nature
Good and evil
Love and hate
The question of identity
Part 3: Essay Requirements
In preparation for this year’s focus on universality, I want you to choose either Medea or Oedipus Rex and
one of the above universal themes. The careful notes that you take relating to your chosen universal
theme will be used to write a literary analysis paper on how your chosen universal theme works within
the play. THIS PAPER WILL BE WRITTEN IN CLASS UPON YOUR RETURN. In your notes, make
sure that you fully explore the author’s development of your chosen universal theme, identify and discuss
what makes the theme universal, and come to a conclusion as to how the theme’s universality makes the
play relevant to today’s audiences. You may use all notes, as well as the text, in class, but you will NOT
be allowed to use an outline or rough draft. You will be given time in class to prepare an outline as part of
the pre-writing process. The writing exercise will be timed, so organize your notes accordingly. Be
prepared to write your essay on the first day of school. Be prepared to hand in your notes on the first day
of school.
Your essay must be hand-written in class and model MLA format. No title page. Point of view must be
3rd person. Fully develop your ideas using clear, detailed language and quotations. Use transitions and
complex, varied sentence structure.