Synthesis Matrix and Literature Review

Example Synthesis: Organized by themes (no critical analysis included) Synthesizing – combining different ideas from different sources to show the connections and divergences between the sources and the writer’s analysis of those key points Depictions of the Underworld

1 1The portrayal of the underworld in epic tales of ancient Greece, Rome, and medieval Europe reveals each culture’s complex and divergent beliefs about the afterlife. 2The works of King (2018), White (2018), and Hall (2019) correspond with one another in that they each conclude that the Greeks viewed the underworld as a realm to which all humans descended after death, regardless of their actions during life. 3Romans and many medieval Europeans, on the other hand, largely considered the afterlife a place divided according to a person’s behaviour in life. 4The one exception for the Greeks, King notes, are heroes who are awarded an intermediary position between mortals and gods, and get a pass from spending eternity in the underworld. 5While King gives a succinct, cursory description of this midpoint that the Greeks, and, later the Romans, believed in, White writes extensively of this notion of a halfway point – later tagged as purgatory – in medieval times because it was a central concept in Christian after-death beliefs.

2 6Hall’s research, in contrast with King’s and White’s, is more contemporary, and contains fewer biases in its analysis of pre-Christian concepts of faith and the afterlife. 7Hall explores the similarities between the hierarchy of the underworld in Virgil’s Aeneid and in Dante’s The Divine Comedy, stating, along with the other two sources, that Virgil’s and Dante’s images of hell were alike in that there was logic in the way dead souls were assigned transgression-appropriate punishments - for example, how greedy people were forced to push great weights (symbolizing the things they wished to hoard). 8Unlike King and White, however, Hall offers a significant amount of evidence indicating that Virgil and, later, Dante subjected these souls to torture and misery in various levels of the underworld as much to make a political point as to fall in line with the religious views of their respective societies.

Adapted from Zwier, L. & Vosters, M. (Eds.). (2017). University success reading transition level (p. 210). Pearson.

Author’s topic sentence (theme 1)

Summary statements – indicate what the 3 sources agree on regarding Greek and Roman beliefs about the underworld

Author indicates how Hall’s views on religion and the afterlife were more modern

Author notes that King emphasizes a point about Greek heroes in the underworld while other authors do not mention it.

Author compares how King & White discuss the “midpoint” and highlights when and why the concept was given more importance

Author indicates how Hall differs from other sources by providing more evidence on how Virgil and Dante associated the suffering of souls in different underworld levels with religious and political undertones in their work

Author points out that the findings of all 3 sources regarding the similarities between Virgil’s Aeneid and Dante’s Divine Comedy were the same

Author’s topic (theme 2)