• Provide detailed evidence, including excerpts from the literary text.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the themes, genres, cultures, time periods, and texts that are this week’s focus.
• Apply APA style guidelines to the source material.

By the end of week, review and comment on at least two of your classmates’ answers. Your responses should be substantive, which means that you should provide a significant level of detail in your reply and show active engagement by referencing the readings, drawing on your own experiences, giving your opinions, respectfully disagreeing where appropriate, or asking questions designed to generate further discussion on the material and its implications outside the realm of the question.

Question:

Sappho and Murasaki Shikibu represent the first two female authors we have encountered in this course. In your Week 1 paper, you were asked to consider how gender is portrayed in The Odyssey. Additionally, in our Week 2 reading of Antigone, gender roles played a pivotal part in the conflict between Creon and the daughter of Oedipus. Selecting either the poems of Sappho or The Tale of Genji, offer a discussion of how either author portrays or defines the cultural roles of men and women. How does this understanding of gender differ from the works of the ancient Greek writers we have read?

Remember that your claims in all parts of the assignment should be substantiated by excerpts from appropriate sources (scholarly research and/or literary texts). Quotes, paraphrases, and summaries used in the assignment should be arranged according to APA rules of style, and in-text and reference citations should be provided, also formatted in APA style. Quoted material should not exceed 25% of the post. Submit the final document in the Discussion Area.