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HON240: Exegesis Paper: 1. Identifying Literary Context

This guide is meant to offer assistance to students in the Hon240 course and help them with the basics of researching and writing their exegetical assignment.

A Note on Using this Guide

The information on this page is intended to help provide ideas, structure, and tips for writing your paper. It is not intended to be an exact step-by-step process that you must follow. Do not feel as though you need to do everything listed here. Use this guide to prompt ideas and concepts that you may choose to utilize when working on your paper. 

Chart of Literary Elements - Part 1

  1. Choose a well-defined text
    Your instructor will provide an approved text.
  2. Write out your text by hand
    Preferably using the NRSV, the purpose of writing the text by hand is to aid you in noticing elements from the text that you may have overlooked.
  3. Pray
    If you feel comfortable doing so, invite God to help you read and understand the passage.
  4. Commit to living with the text
    Reflect on the text over multiple days of reading and re-reading.

Chart of Literary Elements - Part 2

In the chart below, you may want to note as many of the literary elements you can find in your chosen text. This will help with making observations from your passage.

NOTE: You might leave some categories blank. That is not a concern as not every text will include every literary element. Fill in as many as you can find.

Character(s)
List all the characters present in the passage.

Audience
Can you tell from the text who the implied audience is? That is, to whom does it appear that the authors are addressing their writing?

Narrator
Can you tell from the text who the narrator is?

Speaker
Is there a speech in the text? If so, who is making the speech? Is there dialogue? If so, who is speaking in the dialogue?

Genre
What is the genre or literary category? Some sample genres are: 1) speech; 2) narrative; 3) hymn; 4) parable; 5) dialogue; 6) pronouncement story.

Setting
Where is the passage set? What is the geographic location? What is the topography (i.e., on a mountain, in a plain, in a valley, near water)? Is it in a city or a village? A farm or out the wilderness? On a road? If so, where are they traveling from and to?

Time
During what season of the year is the text set? What time of day? Is there a holy day involved?

Key Word(s), Phrase(s), or Theme(s)
List any key words, phrases, or themes. Key words, phrases, or themes are words, phrases, or themes that: 1) are repeated; or 2) are significant for meaning.

Historical Background
Are there references to historical background that will be necessary to understand the text? Are there rulers, tribal leaders, kings, or queens mentioned? Are there references to any ethnic groups? Any events or wars?

Socio-cultural Elements
Is honor or shame a factor? What social conventions can you identify? How is gender or kinship structured (i.e., who is exercising power and agency and can you tell why)? Who has power? Who doesn’t have power? Who is “in”? Who is “out”? Is there evidence of patronage?