How to Prepare Readings

Objective of a “reading” of a passage
Reading sections of the Iliad should prepare you for more efficient, more energetic and more productive reading for the next assignment, as well as preparing you for writing an account of one passage for your first paper. A successful reading enables you and other readers to reread incidents fruitfully.

Reading Assignments

During weekly readings, note particular incidents (and mark pages for reference) that you find notable, either for energy of presentation, surprises in values, or oddities in presentation. You will, of course, refer some stories to others. Consider, however, at lest one incident that troubles or confuses you. You may learn more from attention to such an incident than from the pleasure of traveling once more over apparently familiar ground. After completing a Iliad sections, reread one or a few passages you have singled out. Try to see circumstances from the point of view of characters. Characters at times will see differently, and tracing varied or conflicting approaches to circumstances and actions will hone your sensitivity to Greek worlds, Greek actions, and Greek values.

Audience

Consider your reader to be one of your fellow class-mates. A successful reading will keep your reader’s attention; it will invite your reader to return to your passage, and to the story in which the passage functions; and it will enable your reader to see the passage in a new way. The crucial question to consider is less what the passage “means” and more what the passage gets a reader to do. Consider how the passage moves readers at specific times in specific ways. Use discussion threads to gain experience, sharing responses, reactions and reflections with fellow readers. Seek to gain there respect. Your opinions are to reveal Greek circumstances, attitudes, actions and values, not to pass judgment on your personal likes and dislikes.

Selecting a passage

Consider and note possible passages for explication as you read each assigned text. Select at least one specific passage from among those you note for each assigned text. Passages generally range from a few lines to half a page. Try to pick a passage which you can treat as self-contained. Limiting a passage such that you will need
careful scrutiny to develop your “reading” encourages you to emphasize how the specific language of the passage works. You will use your understanding of other passages in your story (and, perhaps, other stories) to find questions worth exploring. Your discussion, however, will center on the specific language of your chosen passage. In considering your passage you should find more to say
than you would first expect. After such consideration, of course, you may still elect to lengthen your passage for your reading.

Developing a reading

Read your passage through several times, marking notable words, and questions or comments, as sources for development. Look for features of language which raise questions. Then identify central questions your analysis will consider. Identify one or a few possible questions your reading will explore. Then consider carefully why your reader will find your concerns worth time and effort to follow. You may offer an answer to the question or questions you raise, or you may reserve judgment until the end of your reading. In either case, your final judgment
should be that your passage is worth careful attention by your reader for one or a few specific reasons. Your discussion will allow your reader to understand how the question(s) you raise calls attention to specific features of the language of your passage. By focusing your reader’s attention, your discussion will offer your reader a fresh experience.