Goals

• To attend and enjoy the performance of a modern adaptation of an important ancient Greek literary work retelling a mythological story
• To explore how the performance brings out the resonances of the ancient myth and literary work
• To write a brief report on your findings, explaining them clearly

Dates, if you undertake this assignment

• Thursday, 9/26, 8:00 PM: attend Verse Theater Manhattan's performance of War Music in Sky Auditorium
  You are also very welcome to attend and enjoy the performance, but not submit the written report! Participation credit to all attendees
• Thursday, 10/3, 10:00 AM: submit your 2-3 page typed report at the start of our class meeting
  Positive-only Paper credit to Report writers

Assessment and Criteria for the different levels of extra credit

• A small bonus in your Participation component will be granted to all attendees. You will need to speak with me at the performance and personally confirm that you are there: I will try to position myself reasonably prominently near the main entrance to the auditorium during the 10 or so minutes before and after the performance, with a list.
• Report writers will have your report-grades averaged in (at the proration of 25% of a regular paper) to your Paper components if and only if the report-grade improves your Paper average. Reports will be assessed on quality of content (insight, evidence, and argumentation), and correctness of format (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, typing); flawless format will not redeem flawed content, but too many flaws in format will make excellently insightful evidence and argumentation look less good than it deserves. Reports should address the following points:
  • Identify what section or aspect of the performance you're going to explore (event, character, theme), and what it corresponds to in Homer's Iliad (identify by translator and publication information what version of the Iliad you're referring to) - this point should be covered very briefly, just enough to orient the report.
  • Explain concisely what the performance did with the item you're focusing on: how did the performance make it strike you as interesting and important? What significance does it have for understanding classical mythology, and how do you know? Support your interpretation with relevant evidence and clear arguments.
  • Compare and contrast the performance's handling of your item with the way the corresponding item is handled in Homer's Iliad, the original on which the performance is based. What significance does your item bear in Homer? What has the performance made different from Homer? Does it change the significance of the item in any way? Explain and show how, supporting your interpretations with relevant evidence and clear arguments.

Revised 18 September 2002 by jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/