LITR 4533 Tragedy UHCL 2012 final exam samples

LITR 4533 TRAGEDY
Final Exam Samples 2012

Essays & Excerpts for Part B:
Special Topics

Andy Feith

Translating religious values into universal values

A public school teacher has to be delicate when teaching texts that touch upon religion, and tragedy is no stranger to the subject. The ancient Greek gods are uncontroversial enough to teach; we need not worry that one of our students and/or their families are devout followers of any of the Olympians, but when approaching Christianity, as in Samson Agonistes or The Crucible, we have to tread lightly. One particularly interesting teaching approach is directly suggested by the format of this course; by reading first Oedipus at Colonus and then explicitly pairing it with Samson Agonistes, we learn that the essential features of plot and character can be carried over from Greek to English Puritanical religion. Regardless of what gods may or may not rule the heavens, we on Earth are subject to the same passions and limitations. This is an excellent and encouraging realization. Perhaps we who will go on to teach can constantly redirect the focus of class time away from the question of whether specific religious claims are true and toward the question of what religion tells us about human beings.

I am reminded of something I learned in Dr. Gorman’s workshop in poetics this semester, that Wallace Stevens became an atheist at some point in his life and dedicated much of his career to advancing the argument that if there is no god, we human beings must be for each other what God once was: family, community, relationship. Maybe a slightly more daring public school teacher could ask his students what core human needs religion meets. In Oedipus at Colonus, those needs range from the relatively simple (Oedipus learns from an oracle where he will die) to the profound (Oedipus is assured that his death will bring a blessing; and he comes to the conclusion that because the gods predetermined him to kill his father and marry his mother, he is absolved of responsibility for those choices). The consolations of religion in Samson Agonistes are fewer, but no less significant: Samson’s final burst of strength from the Hebrew God not only vindicates him and his reputation, but restores his people’s faith in God as their almighty deliverer, who in one stroke obliterates their oppressors. This kind of optimism pairs well with the more guarded optimism I discussed earlier in relation to Greek tragedy in general and Antigone in particular. That is, Milton’s tragedy inspires the reader to “keep the faith,” to believe in God’s eventual deliverance in the midst of hopeless circumstances, where Greek tragedy doesn’t generally point to any hope of deliverance, but takes comfort in the wisdom imparted from suffering and loss. Still, even in the Greek tradition, we have the occasional Oedipus or Orestes, who is restored to honor in the last act by an act of the gods.

Teaching religion, though it has its obvious risks, means teaching something vitally important to the human race, from the beginnings of history to the present day. The best religious education is inclusive; public schools can take advantage of their nonsectarian status to teach the fundamentals of many religions, without having to claim exclusive truth for any one of them. In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama wrote of his mother that she “viewed religion through the eyes of an anthropologist; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well.” Churches may take a side, but the best churches (and certainly the best public schools) impart knowledge of other religions, and not only their differences but especially what they share in common.