Respond to one of the following prompts and upload your response as a Word document or pdf.

Instructions

You should support your answer with reference toboth theGreat Historical Epistle andSphinx.

Where appropriate, you may refer to the ancient texts that we have read as background material:

• Genesis
• The Gospel According to Matthew
• Acts of the Apostles
• Corinthians
• Galatians
• "The Speech of Aristophanes"
• "Salmacis and Hermaphroditus"

And finally, where appropriate, you may also refer to the theoretical texts that we have read: Ella Haselswerdt's "Re-queering Sappho" and Sarah Schulman's "White Writer".

Your essay should have a single, central argument that it defends with evidence from our readings. Do not speak in broad, sweeping generalisations about the past or present.

Your response should be in the format of a five-ish paragraph essay: introduction, 2-3 body paragraphs, conclusion.

1. In theGreat Historical Epistle, the writer uses grammatical gender as a stylistic tool, referring to themself* using masculine and feminine language at different moments, sometimes alternating in the same sentence. InSphinx, the author leaves the book's two main characters completely ungendered, avoiding French's grammatical gender system. Compare and contrast these two writing strategies. What can they tell us about the differences or similarities in the kinds of gender variance each book depicts?

*themself here is used to mask the gender of the author, not to imply a non-binary identity

2. The protagonists ofSphinx and theGreat Historical Epistle both study Christian theology and have been deeply influenced by it. Compare and contrast the presence of Christian theology in these two works with an eye toward how theology helps the authors articulate their understanding of gender variance.