Final essay:
Your final essay is a chance to reflect on the course’s primary sources in the context of lectures and each other. Please make sure you use your skills as a historian (developed in this course and elsewhere) in writing. That is, be sure that you look at the two guides, “Introduction and thesis statement" and “paragraph analysis” (attached), for reminders and guidance on how to structure your paper and how to write body paragraphs.
INSTRUCTIONS
Format
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Some of the essay prompts below refer to time periods. For your convenience, here are the time divisions we’ve adopted for this course’s hagiographies and American superhero movies.
Saints: | Superheroes |
Period: Early Christianity Perpetua Antony of Egypt Severinus of Noricum | Period: 1970s Star Wars (1977) Superman (1978) |
Period: Early medieval Cuthbert Olaf | Period: 1990s-2009 The Messenger (1999) Spider-man (2002) The Dark Knight (2008) |
Period: 12-13th centuries Christina the Astonishing Francis of Assisi Zita of Lucca Pier Pettinaio of Siena Fina of San Gimignano The Golden Legend | Period: 2009-2017 The Avengers (2012) Man of Steel (2013) Dr. Strange (2016) |
Period: 14th-15th centuries Catherine of Siena Joan of Arc The Golden Legend |
Prompt:
- Saintly Power, Super Power, and Institutional Power
"With great power comes great responsibility." How important is this theme in superhero films versus saints' lives? To what extent do saints and superheroes have a responsibility to use their powers for 'good,' and what is the relationship of the 'good' to institutional power (the church, government, the police, etc.)? Focus on one superhero and one saint. References can be made to others (Batman from "The Dark Knight" (2008), Spiderman from "Spiderman" (2002), St. Luke, St. Anthony, Perpetua, Cuthbert, Olaf, St. Francis, Joan of Arc, Zita of Lucca, Christina the Astonishing), but the main analysis should focus on one of each. For the superhero, use Superman from the film "Man of Steel" (2013). For the saint, use St. Francis from Thomas of Celano, “The Life of St. Francis,” in Hermann, P. ed., 1963. St. Francis of Assisi: First and second life of St. Francis, with selections from Treatise on the miracles of Blessed Francis. Franciscan Herald Press. Link Links to an external site.Link 2Links to an external site.
SPECIFICATIONS: the dirty details
- 10–12 double-spaced pages in 12-pt font (2700–3800 words). Please include page numbers at the bottom of the page.
- Please do not include a cover page. On the first page, please head your work with a title and your name, and copy and paste the prompt before starting your essay.
- Using footnotes and not parenthetical citations (see descriptions and examples below). No bibliography is required in this format.
- Please make sure the paper is formatted so as to maximize legibility. You are free to adjust fonts and margins according to your own aesthetic preferences, we will pay attention to word count.
- Please submit as either a MS word document or a PDF–sorry, Canvas is picky. (note that if you use google docs, it has an option to download as Microsoft Word.
CITATIONS:
For ease, I’ve modified a couple of different standard citation formats for consistency in our class. Please use footnotes rather than parenthetical citations. As this is a medieval history course, we’re using a variation on the style guide for the leading American journal in the field: link. This means the following format:
- Medieval Author, Name of Work 2.4.1, trans.. First Name Last Name (City, 1990), 135.
- Medieval Author, Name of Work 2.4.1.
- Medieval Author, Name of Work, 135.
- Matt. 5.21
Note 1 is a standard first citation. The subdivisions of the medieval work follow the title without intervening punctuation, in descending order, separated by periods. For example, if the work is divided into books, sections, and chapters, the sample citation should be read as book 2, section 4, chapter 1.
Once the edition of a work has been provided in the first citation, subsequent references are shortened as in note 2 or note 3. If the translation provides medieval divisions like books, sections, chapters, please use those. If it does not (as in Webb’s Cities and Saints), use format 3, where a page number is indicated.
Note 4 shows standard biblical citations, which likewise use periods as the divider between subdivisions, in this instance between chapter and verse. This format does not require a bibliography.
Sadly, they do not include instructions on how to reference films. For the superhero movies, we’re using a variation on the Chicago Manual of style:
First Citation
Title, dir. First Name Last name (Studio, Year), Version, timestamp.
ex. The Avengers, dir. Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, 2012), 00:23:14
Subsequent short citations
Title, timestamp
ex. Spider-man, 1:31:02