Prepared Oral Presentation

[ridiculous]

Hello hello!

Sorry if this is the wrong forum......I'm doing HL English and our Oral Presentation is coming up in a couple of months.

I'm thinking of doing one of two things for it: One is an analysis of the use of Greek Tragedy in Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot, the other is a kind of standard analysis of another book we're doing An Imaginary Life by David Malouf - I'm just going to be analysing a motif in the book. In depth of course.

My question is, I'm kind of assuming that if I do the first option I will possibly get a higher mark because I'm planning on doing a lot of comparisons to Greek texts we haven't studied (the IB likes this kind of thing apparently), and there's a LOT of examples of Greek tragedy in the play that I can point out... but I'm having trouble narrowing down my analysis - is it enough to just recognise the use of a style of writing/composition in a piece of literature? What kinds of things would you suggest relating the techniques back to if this isn't the case?

I was thinking about the way the techniques contribute to shaping the mood/a character/whatever...

Or I can just do the second book instead and be safe.

Any help is appreciated

[sweetnsimple786]

I haven't read these works, but I think that the first sounds cooler for two reasons. The first is that I think presenting on themes and motifs and the like are more common, and it seems like you want to stand out, which is great. I think it's more that your topic will be original than your topic will show your knowledge in a field that you're studying, if that makes sense, that will impress the grader. And the second reason [which is also the more important reason] is that you seem to be more enthusiastic about the first topic.

So keeping in mind I have no clue about the plot or Greek tragedies in general, maybe you can narrow it down by adding a phrase to your topic. "an analysis of the use of Greek Tragedy in Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot" to show ______ or emphasize ______. Characterization, maybe. A layer of the story that isn't apparent until you look closely. Or a message from the author? Something. Lots of possibilities. Try to find 3-5 examples of one thing, and you should be just fine. =)

Edited October 11, 2009 by sweetnsimple786

[ridiculous]

Thanks for your suggestion I'll look over the play and see if I can find anything specifically influenced by Greek tragedy...at first glance its not looking very successful...