This assignment is due Sunday, December 8th at 11:59 P.M. PST. Your essay should be a minimum of 5 full pages (no more than 7) in length in the Humanities format. See the “Formatting the HUM Essay” section in the Humanities Writing Curriculum for the complete formatting requirements.
Essay #2 requires that you raise a potential counterargument and respond to it. See counterargument section in the Humanities Writing Curriculum.
Please respond to one of the following prompts:
1) Montaigne and Cavafy reflect upon their own personal values and the values of their respective societies by placing their contemporary worlds in conversation with the more distant past. Do these authors agree or disagree on the insight that the historical past can provide for us both as individuals and as members of a broader community? Why or why not? (The strongest essays will use multiple essays from Montaigne and multiple poems from Cavafy in their response to the prompt).
2) Both Montaigne and Cavafy agree that the category of the “barbarian” is something that we have invented and is not an inherently meaningful distinction. Do these authors challenge the notion of a world divided between “us” and “them” in the same manner? Why or why not? (The strongest essays will use multiple essays from Montaigne and multiple poems from Cavafy in their response to the prompt).
3) Both Montaigne and Cavafy recognize that there is a gap between who we really are and who we wish to be. Do these authors agree or disagree on how to bridge the divide between our actual and idealized selves? Why or why not? (The strongest essays will use multiple essays from Montaigne and multiple poems from Cavafy in their response to the prompt).
Upload your essay as a Word document (doc or docx) here. All essays will undergo a text-similarity review by Turnitin.com. Please check that your essay uploaded correctly; any errors in an uploaded document are the responsibility of the student and will accrue late penalties. Late essays will receive a penalty of 1⁄3 letter grade per day. “One day late” begins Monday December 9th at 12:00 A.M.
Only cite from the assigned sections and editions of the texts, following the examples in Formatting Quotations and Citing Evidence in the Humanities Writing Curriculum. Improper format and citation will affect the essay’s grade.
Your essay should be the result of your own thinking about what is discussed in class and your critical reading of the texts. Accordingly, it is a violation of academic integrity to consult external sources (including sources like Wikipedia or SparkNotes) or to use assisting tools (including LLMs like ChatGPT) that generate the structure, ideas, or language of your work. This applies not only to the essay itself but also to your notes. For the complete Academic Integrity policy, see the Syllabus. Please save your work, including notes, outlines, and publishs. You may be asked to explain in detail the argument of your essay and your writing process.
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