I am way too excited about your paper. :D I love your examples so much. And it's awesome that you're so specific about what you're going to focus on.

To pad out a proposal (as if that's ever my problem! Max wordcounts are my enemy), it sometimes helps to start with a paragraph that lays out your thesis and situates it vis a vis other scholars' opinions. So you could start with something like "In contemporary culture, words like 'myth' and 'legend' are often associated with the primitive or the exotic Other. However, the same tropes and archetypes that define various ancient mythologies can be found throughout the most immediate and ubiquitous forms of American popular culture." Or something like that. And then switch into the "I will" statements. It helps to include some kind of question that you want to answer with your research, like, "how do these archetypes reproduce the functions of mythology within popular culture?" or IDK, something that I didn't make up, and that therefore actually means something and isn't bullshit. :D

For a possibly useless example, the first paragraph of my thesis proposal:


Scholars of both American and European literature of the early 20th century know Mina Loy as a social fixture more than anything -- a colorful character who attended parties and openings with big names like Gertrude Stein and Marcel Duchamp, had her work championed by Ezra Pound, and flirted with Giuseppe Marinetti. Loy has been included in accounts of this period as a kind of period accessory, without much attention to her own artistic output until the end of the 20th century. Her unconventional use of line structure and punctuation is often noted, and critics of Modernism use her as an example of pushing the boundaries of acceptable subject matter, but little attention has been paid to what she did with these devices besides simply shocking the bourgeoisie. In this way, she is reduced to a footnote. How could this happen to a writer whose "Love Songs" were once emblematic of the new face of poetry shocking the establishment? There is no one simple answer; while critics have neglected Loy, she was also an active participant in her own distancing from the canon of Modernism. This distancing is a result of factors including gender disparities, historical realities, as well as Loy's own ideosyncratic artistic vision. As such, I will explore both Feminist and historical approaches to her work and its relationship with the Modernist and Futurist canons.

Thor isn't the Norse god of war. You're thinking of Tyr.

Why not discuss their manipulations and the scales they do it on, whether its just to teach someone a very important lesson or to just create chaos and anarchy or o step towards a greater plan like conquest?
What are their motivations?

To be honest, the Norse had multiple war gods, such as Tyr, Odin, Freya, Thor, just like the Greeks also honored Athena as the goddess of war, not just Ares.

How many pages is this paper? Because dude, it looks like you're writing a book. Might consider focusing on either tricksters or war gods unless the interaction between tricksters and war god archetypes is really what you're after. From your summery is looks like you're exploring modern incarnations of mythic archetypes and you have 3 in modern, 3 in classic. If you were to skim just the war gods or just the tricksters, you'd have 10-15 pages easy. And skimming might not work if the teacher hasn't watched Psych, White Collar, Leverage, Chuck and Supernatural.

That said, woo Loki. :-)

>.> Four or five pages? Okay, you just don't have room to explain 6 characters, nevermind 12. Pick a modern character and mythic and you will be beyond fine! Really truly. Just assume professor knows absolutely nothing about either modern or mythic character. Tell a few stories about each - how they're similar and bam! 5 pages in your sleep. :-)

Edited 2010-03-08 04:25 pm (UTC)