(Make sure to go over the hints for writing a critical response paper before beginning work on this assignment  )

• Topics must be submitted in writing and must include the name(s) of the specific text(s) you will be interpreting.
• Once you submit a topic, you are bound to it.  Any changes in topic must be accompanied by a written explanation for the change.
• Topics CANNOT be changed after the final topic deadline date (see below).
• The final deadline for turning in your topics is stated on the syllabus.
• No topics will be accepted after that deadline. If your topic has not been accepted by that time, you cannot hand in a paper and you will lose twenty (20) points off of your final average.

• Women: Prizes, Goddesses, Mothers, Wives
• Gods
• Vision vs. Blindness
• Theology: Greek vs. Egyptian vs. Roman vs. Hebrew
• War vs. Love/Sex
• Relationships: Gods and Humans, Men and Women
• Language
• Prophets & Prophecies/ Dreams & Dreamers (i.e. Gilgamesh )
• Kings & Rulers: Good and Bad Qualities
• Characters and their Relationships
• History
• Versions of Creation
• Visions of the Flood
• Visions of the Underworld
• Suicide

One such approach is to examine the works of a particular writer within the historical context during which it was written.  What, in other words, makes the works represent a particular period, culture, etc.?   You can also examine the relationship between the author's life and the works he/she writes.

Once you have decided on a general topic to explore, you could go one of three ways: examine a couple of  shorter works by the same author, examine a longer work by one author, or examine a few short works by two different authors.  I would try not to examine more than one novel or play, two short stories, or three poems.

Some potential topics.  Keep in mind that for each of these topics,  you will need to develop an opinion or answer a question:

• The Trojan War: Trojan vs. Greek Perspective (Aeneid vs. Iliad)
• Comparison of Kings (Pick Two): Gilgamesh vs. Agamemnon vs. Oedipus vs. Akhenaten vs. Sundiata vs. Dido (O.K., She's not a King, but She could make for an interesting comparison), Dido vs. Jocasta
• Suicide & Reasons for It: Jocasta and Dido
• Influence of Virgil on Dante in terms of Vision of Hell/Underworld
• Love Poetry (Pick Two): Chinese vs. Roman vs. Greek vs. Egyptian vs. Donne
• Piety (Pick Two): Donne vs.  Job vs. Dante vs. Adam & Eve
• Portrayal of War (Pick Two): Iliad vs Aeneid vs. Bhagavad-Gita vs. Sundiata
• Intercultural Influence: Greek to Roman, Chinese to Japanese
• Allegorical Journeys:  Dante vs. Everyman
• Religious Perspectives: Chaucer vs. Dante vs. Everyman (Pick Two)
• Limits of Knowledge: Adam & Eve, et al.
• Tempters/Evil Influences: Serpent vs. Satan
• Relationships between Cultures and Versions of Creation:  Egypt/Poetry, Africa/Myths, Greek/Hesiod, etc. (pick two cultures to compare)