New here... In other news: Academic Dilemma!

Hello Everyone-
Let me begin by saying that while I did find your forum seeking academic advice, I do love literature and plan to contribute as a new member of your community :)

Having said that, here's my situation.

I've been assigned a simple task in my English Lit course: Choose from any concept or historical trend we've witnessed in our reading so far and show it's modern equivalent or cultural parallel; the idea being to illustrate how little we've actually changed. As usual, I'm having a hard time deciding on a topic. We've read, so far, the Dream of the Rood and Caedmon's Hymn from Bede, Beowulf, the Cantebury tales, Everyman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King Lear and a tiny bit of Paradise Lost.

some simple examples I've thought of include:

1. Discussing the similarities between Greek symposiums, modern keg parties, mead halls in Anglo-Saxon society and today's bars.
2. My personal encounters with each allegory in Everyman
3. Offering a modern day equivalent to each of the characters in Chaucer.
4. King Lear and modern sibling rivalries and/or the bitter division of estates.

Pretty unimaginative, I think. Anyone have a clever suggestions? I could probably make any interesting staple of Anglo-Saxon of Medieval culture work...
Thanks in advance everyone, I really can't wait to start browsing these forums!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hexagondun

1. Discussing the similarities between Greek symposiums, modern keg parties, mead halls in Anglo-Saxon society and today's bars.
2. My personal encounters with each allegory in Everyman
3. Offering a modern day equivalent to each of the characters in Chaucer.
4. King Lear and modern sibling rivalries and/or the bitter division of estates.

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Any one of these probably will annoy some professors and entertain others. I would go with the Ancient Greek symposia and a modern cocktail party. Making it too broad would be a mistake, and symposia were small affairs, distinctly different from kep parties and bars and mead halls; although the mead hall would sometimes have been similar. You could als look at the mead hall and a bar that features acoustic music, since both would have poetic similarities.

If you try number three, then you will be writing a book, but it could be interesting.

That sounds like it could turn out to be a fun paper.

Could you do a comparison between one of those medieval texts and a modern movie adaptation? You could talk about both in terms of translation.

If you're interested in gender studies, you could pick one of the texts featuring courtly love (Chaucer or Gawain) and see to what extent modern couples adhere to the ideals of chivalry. If you're interested in race, you could look at how foreigners or monsters are portrayed in medieval texts (I'd suggest Beowulf or Milton) vs. our xenophobia or portrayal of Muslims today. Or you could look at the representation of Christianity in one text and compare/contrast with the Puritan tendencies of Christianity in modern America.

If you end up using either Beowulf or SGGK, let me know. They're two of my favorite texts. And we could bounce further ideas off each other.

Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hexagondun

Hello Everyone-
Let me begin by saying that while I did find your forum seeking academic advice, I do love literature and plan to contribute as a new member of your community :)

Having said that, here's my situation.

I've been assigned a simple task in my English Lit course: Choose from any concept or historical trend we've witnessed in our reading so far and show it's modern equivalent or cultural parallel; the idea being to illustrate how little we've actually changed. As usual, I'm having a hard time deciding on a topic. We've read, so far, the Dream of the Rood and Caedmon's Hymn from Bede, Beowulf, the Cantebury tales, Everyman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King Lear and a tiny bit of Paradise Lost.

some simple examples I've thought of include:

1. Discussing the similarities between Greek symposiums, modern keg parties, mead halls in Anglo-Saxon society and today's bars.
I'm not sure how relevant this is to literature. Yes, everybody drunk loads throughout the ages, but that's not particular to one type of literature


2. My personal encounters with each allegory in Everyman
I suppose this could be interesting. I'm not sure what it says about literature but it could show off a nice writing style


3. Offering a modern day equivalent to each of the characters in Chaucer.
Been done loads of times.


4. King Lear and modern sibling rivalries and/or the bitter division of estates.
This is probably your best bet, seeing as you can draw parallels with actual events

Pretty unimaginative, I think. Anyone have a clever suggestions? I could probably make any interesting staple of Anglo-Saxon of Medieval culture work...
Thanks in advance everyone, I really can't wait to start browsing these forums!

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I'd go for the Lear one because you could argue that it's politically relevant- for example, in the UK, you have the Milliband brothers. Hell, you could even go for the Jonas Brothers. It seems to be the idea that has the strongest critical basis.