*Read the instructions carefully*
Trojan Women
Prompt:
This is a reaction/reflection assignment: What, in your view, do the Trojan Women, especially Andromache and Hecuba, represent? What ideas or beliefs about warfare, slavery, sexual assault, agency, fate, freedom of choice, grief, or motherhood might Seneca be attempting to articulate using these characters as a vehicle? Importantly, do you believe that this tragedy entrenches and justifies Roman ideas of superiority and empire (that it looks to the mythological Roman past to glorify the suffering of Roman ancestors and to justify empire today), or is it a veiled critique of Roman practices, using the Greeks to illustrate how those in power — now the Romans — always behave?
Justify your reasons!
Instructions:
This should be 2 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 size font.
As always, you will be evaluated on the quality of your writing and your understanding of the of the key ideas at play.
Apocolocyntosis
Prompt:
How would you write a mock-apotheosis/deification today? Which powerful figure would be its subject? Who do you imagine might be its author? What are some concrete physical, character-, or other traits the satirist might mock or belittle, and how or why might he choose these? What might make these funny (and true)? What political, policy, ideological, or other ideas, beliefs, and practices of the satirized might the satirist identify and satirize? And what might the political, ideological, entertainment, or other potential purposes of such a satire be? Make sure to justify yourself: explain why you’ve made the choices that you have, and esp. how they relate to Seneca.
Directions:
This should be 2 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 size font.
As always, you will be evaluated on the quality of your writing. You will also be evaluated on your understanding of the principles behind this exercise, in this case, how satire functions. So your assignment must show an awareness of the purposes and strategies that satirists adopt in order to achieve their stated (or unstated goal. You may consider how and why satire mocks, belittles, but also creates community; how it might combine high and low registers and content, and how it is used as a tool to make broader political and cultural observations and statements.
