Humanities 110

Paper Topics | Fall 2024 | Paper 2

Due Saturday, October 12, 5:00 p.m. to your conference leader

Target length: 1,500 words

Choose one of the following topics:

1. Trace the ways in which a character's or group’s identity is developed in relation to location or geography (real and/or metaphorical) in “The Tale of Sinuhe,” “The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant,” the story of Joseph in Genesis, or the story of Moses in Exodus. You may consider how location or geography reaffirms or unsettles categories such as self and other, or familiar and foreign, or friend and foe. 

2. How do the images and metaphors associated with death, literal or symbolic, shift over the course of “The Tale of Sinuhe” or “The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant”? You may take into account the particular narrative moments where the images and metaphors are deployed. What is the larger significance of this shift in the context of the work as a whole?

3. In his lecture on Egyptian love lyric, Dustin Simpson defines “bestowal” as a means of creating or instantiating love (as opposed to simply expressing it). Through a close reading of any one Egyptian poem, examine how its language creates and invests value in the love relationship. How does the poem establish the beloved as an object of desire? Make sure to refamiliarize yourself with the concept of bestowal as explained in the lecture.

4. Moses is undoubtedly the central figure in Exodus. But Exodus also features a number of other characters who play a key role in the Israelites’ journey toward freedom. Analyze one or two episodes in which the text foregrounds other individuals or the community. How does this attention to others complicate, reinforce, or clarify Moses’s role as a leader?

5. Genesis and Theogony offer accounts of the creation. Closely examine the creation of human beings in either Theogony or Genesis and discuss how the text portrays relationships between human beings and the non-human (e.g., animals, gods, monsters, etc.). What is the story establishing about human nature, and how is this idea of the human developed in relation to the idea of the non-human?

In addition to consulting with your conference leader, you can get help with all stages of the writing process from peer tutors at the Writing Center. You can find links to the Writing Center hours on the Drop-in Tutoring Schedule website. Extra tutoring help will be available in the week leading up to paper due dates.