This paper should be 5-6 pages long.
Due date: May 1, 4 p.m. in my office.
Analyze the role of religion in Middlesex. The novel is filled with different expressions of religion: Orthodox Christianity, Islam, the Nation of Islam, Greek mythology, ghosts and spirits. How do ideas of God or the gods impact the novel’s notions of fate, responsibility, or agency? You might also consider religion as ceremony: religious dress, costumes, props, and “pageantry.” (This is a broad topic, so be sure to choose a particular angle to narrow the topic; you might want to choose just one aspect or type of religion to discuss.)
Discuss film imagery in the novel. At several points, Cal compares his narrative to a film running or unspooling. He uses “Hollywood” references (for instance, he does the “Clint Eastwood squint” as he tries to figure out how to act like a man [p. 449]). Tessie escapes to the movies during the war, and imagines that she sees Milton in a newsreel. How is a film different from a novel, and why does Cal find film imagery useful and evocative? Where do you see the influence of film on Eugenides’ style and narrative technique?
The Stephanides are a Greek family from Turkey; they move to a city, Detroit, which is divided along black and white racial lines. Examine the role that race and ethnicity plays in Middlesex. You may wish to focus on Jimmy Zizmo as your primary example. Race/ethnicity can be imagined as something that is both “in the blood” and culturally determined. How is To what extent are characters’ identities shaped by their racial and ethnic background? How does race and ethnicity function as a symbol in the novel?
Analyze images of thread and string in Middlesex. From Desdemona’s spinning silkworms to Tessie’s imagined umbilical cord, the novel is filled with images of threads connecting one person to another or spinning out a tale. These threads/strings/cords are often metaphors of storytelling; what kind of story does this metaphor imply? At other times they reflect relationships and connections between people, between nations, between eras. Find a selection of these images and craft an argument about how Cal and Eugenides use them.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Presentations
Each of you will be doing a presentation in groups of 2 or 3. Here are some general guidelines. You should be sure to consult with one another about this project! I'm also happy to have you come speak with me beforehand.
You should choose a passage (a couple of paragraphs) from the novel, or you may choose a theme (example: religion vs. science) or a repeated image (example: a thread unspooling). Give a 5-minute presentation on how your passage is significant, or how the author uses the theme/imagery. Then you should come up with a substantial question or two to pose to the group. This should be a discussion question--one that will spark conversation--and not just a question that could be answered simply.
I will give you a fair amount of leeway in how you structure the presentation, as long as you engage critically and substantially with the material.
You should choose a passage (a couple of paragraphs) from the novel, or you may choose a theme (example: religion vs. science) or a repeated image (example: a thread unspooling). Give a 5-minute presentation on how your passage is significant, or how the author uses the theme/imagery. Then you should come up with a substantial question or two to pose to the group. This should be a discussion question--one that will spark conversation--and not just a question that could be answered simply.
I will give you a fair amount of leeway in how you structure the presentation, as long as you engage critically and substantially with the material.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Paper topics
Write a 4-5 page paper on one of the following topics.
Paper due: Wednesday, April 1, 4 p.m. to my office, Cushing-Martin 134
Analyze images of the date palm tree in Season of Migration to the North. Salih begins the novel with a deeply-rooted palm that gives a “feeling of assurance” to the narrator. What does the palm tree represent to him, and how does that meaning shift over the course of the novel?
Discuss the role of poetry in Season of Migration. Mustafa Sa’eed’s poetry recitation first reveals his secret former life; the narrator has a doctorate in English poetry; the driver in the desert sings Arabic poetry to his car; and when the narrator enters Sa’eed’s room, we learn that Sa’eed has tried to write poetry himself. What is the significance of these various poems? What do they tell us about the characters who write/recite them? What kind of language is a poem, and how does it differ from other forms of narration or storytelling? What do the poems have to do with cultural identity? Why does Salih include poems as part of his novel (verse in the midst of prose)?
Compare Jean Morris and Hosna Bint Mahmoud as doubles of one another. Although they are very different in both character and circumstance, there are many parallels between them—most obviously that both are murdered by their husbands in an act of sexual violence, and both also threaten violence themselves. Analyze these characters’ motivations and the events that shape their relationships with men. What does this doubling tell us about the larger themes of the novel—the conflict between or blurring of North and South, male and female, black and white, colonizer and colonized? About problems of power? Be careful not just to list their similarities and/or differences, but to explore how and why Salih creates this parallel.
Analyze images of war, battle, and violence in Season of Migration. Mustafa Sa’eed imagines himself as a warrior and his bedroom as a “theater of war;” who or what is he fighting? Why is the poem he recites about World War I? Where else do we find war imagery?
Analyze images of water (rivers, oceans, floods) in Season of Migration. What does water represent to Salih? Is it healing or damaging; an escape or a trap; productive or destructive? Why does Se’eed describe his mother’s face as being like the sea? Does its meaning change over time, depending on the context, or for different characters?
Compare the relationship between aliens and humans in two of the following films/readings: E.T., War of the Worlds, Alien, or Forbidden Planet. Some of the questions you might address: What does the alien’s physical appearance tell us? What dichotomies (pairings of opposites) and conflicts does it set up? What is the goal of the “invading” species? What human fears does the encounter incite? What, if anything, does it warn against? How are humans different from and similar to the alien? (Be sure not simply to answer these questions, but to develop a specific and narrow argument.)
Analyze images of parents in Alien and/or E.T. Alien is full of images and the vocabulary of mothering, birth, and gestating. E.T. seems preoccupied with absent fathers and father-figures. Why are parents so important in these tales?
Analyze Derek Walcott’s use of mythical, Biblical, or epic imagery in one or two of his poems. How does his use of these allusions interact with the ordinary, present-day elements of the poems?
Compare images of arrival in two of Walcott’s poems: “Homecoming: Anse La Raye,” “Landfall, Grenada,” or “Exile.” How do his different speakers imagine their arrivals? What conflicts and encounters does he depict—between people, between cultures, between bodies and land—and how do his speakers deal with those encounters?
Both of Lahiri’s stories present imperfect marriages with a third party (Mrs. Croft and Mr. Kapasi) who somehow intervenes in or helps to “interpret” the marriage. How does each of these stories understand marriage? Are Mrs. Croft and Mr. Kapasi similar in any way? How do you analyze the ending of each story?
Paper due: Wednesday, April 1, 4 p.m. to my office, Cushing-Martin 134
Analyze images of the date palm tree in Season of Migration to the North. Salih begins the novel with a deeply-rooted palm that gives a “feeling of assurance” to the narrator. What does the palm tree represent to him, and how does that meaning shift over the course of the novel?
Discuss the role of poetry in Season of Migration. Mustafa Sa’eed’s poetry recitation first reveals his secret former life; the narrator has a doctorate in English poetry; the driver in the desert sings Arabic poetry to his car; and when the narrator enters Sa’eed’s room, we learn that Sa’eed has tried to write poetry himself. What is the significance of these various poems? What do they tell us about the characters who write/recite them? What kind of language is a poem, and how does it differ from other forms of narration or storytelling? What do the poems have to do with cultural identity? Why does Salih include poems as part of his novel (verse in the midst of prose)?
Compare Jean Morris and Hosna Bint Mahmoud as doubles of one another. Although they are very different in both character and circumstance, there are many parallels between them—most obviously that both are murdered by their husbands in an act of sexual violence, and both also threaten violence themselves. Analyze these characters’ motivations and the events that shape their relationships with men. What does this doubling tell us about the larger themes of the novel—the conflict between or blurring of North and South, male and female, black and white, colonizer and colonized? About problems of power? Be careful not just to list their similarities and/or differences, but to explore how and why Salih creates this parallel.
Analyze images of war, battle, and violence in Season of Migration. Mustafa Sa’eed imagines himself as a warrior and his bedroom as a “theater of war;” who or what is he fighting? Why is the poem he recites about World War I? Where else do we find war imagery?
Analyze images of water (rivers, oceans, floods) in Season of Migration. What does water represent to Salih? Is it healing or damaging; an escape or a trap; productive or destructive? Why does Se’eed describe his mother’s face as being like the sea? Does its meaning change over time, depending on the context, or for different characters?
Compare the relationship between aliens and humans in two of the following films/readings: E.T., War of the Worlds, Alien, or Forbidden Planet. Some of the questions you might address: What does the alien’s physical appearance tell us? What dichotomies (pairings of opposites) and conflicts does it set up? What is the goal of the “invading” species? What human fears does the encounter incite? What, if anything, does it warn against? How are humans different from and similar to the alien? (Be sure not simply to answer these questions, but to develop a specific and narrow argument.)
Analyze images of parents in Alien and/or E.T. Alien is full of images and the vocabulary of mothering, birth, and gestating. E.T. seems preoccupied with absent fathers and father-figures. Why are parents so important in these tales?
Analyze Derek Walcott’s use of mythical, Biblical, or epic imagery in one or two of his poems. How does his use of these allusions interact with the ordinary, present-day elements of the poems?
Compare images of arrival in two of Walcott’s poems: “Homecoming: Anse La Raye,” “Landfall, Grenada,” or “Exile.” How do his different speakers imagine their arrivals? What conflicts and encounters does he depict—between people, between cultures, between bodies and land—and how do his speakers deal with those encounters?
Both of Lahiri’s stories present imperfect marriages with a third party (Mrs. Croft and Mr. Kapasi) who somehow intervenes in or helps to “interpret” the marriage. How does each of these stories understand marriage? Are Mrs. Croft and Mr. Kapasi similar in any way? How do you analyze the ending of each story?
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Formatting or citation questions?
For questions about paper formatting, how to cite something, proper quotation format, and the like, refer to this website on MLA style from Purdue University:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
The Purdue Online Writing Center has lots of other great writing resources as well:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
The Purdue Online Writing Center has lots of other great writing resources as well:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Depictions of Caliban through the ages
In Fromental Halevy's opera La Tempesta, c. 1850
William Bell Scott, "Ariel and Caliban," 1865
William Hogarth, detail from "Shakespeare's The Tempest," c. 1730
From the BBC website, a children's summary of "The Tempest"
Charles Buchel, illustration from published version of "The Tempest," 1904
Willie Anderson as Caliban in Michael Smuin's "The Tempest" by Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, c. 2002.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Paper topics for "The Tempest"
There will be two stages to this assignment.
1) Gathering Evidence: Due Friday, Feb. 6 in class.
Select one of the following topics. Go through the play and make a list of quotations that you could use as evidence for your paper. (You don't have to write out the entire quotation, but write enough that you'll remember what you're referring to.) You should have at least 8-10 examples, and probably more. Write down anything that could possibly be useful--you will go through these later and sort them out. Then start to think about which pieces of evidence are most relevant, how to make connections between pieces of evidence, what the evidence reveals about the play, and what kind of argument you might be able to make.
2) Paper: Due Friday, Feb. 13 in class.
Using the evidence you gathered, write a 4-5 page analytical paper on “The Tempest.” This paper should have a clear thesis statement and should be grounded in evidence from the text in question, including quotations. Your paper’s argument should attempt to answer both “how” and “why:” how does Shakespeare use a particular theme, and why do you think he employs it that way? Close reading should be the foundation for your analysis, with attention paid to the details of language: symbolism, imagery, metaphors, word choice, and/or poetic technique, where applicable.
Topics
1. Discuss Shakespeare’s use of images of performance, acting, and theatricality in “The Tempest.” Focus your argument closely on an element of this theme, such as Prospero’s “staging” of scenes, Antonio “acting” the part of Duke, or Ariel creating theatrical illusions.
2. Discuss one example of the opposition between “art”/“magic” and “nature” in “The Tempest.” Choose a particular scene or passage to analyze. You might compare Ariel or Prospero as “art” and Caliban as “nature;” discuss Gonzalo’s imagined commonwealth; or analyze natural imagery and metaphors in a scene of your choosing.
3. Compare Ferdinand and Miranda’s description of love as “slavery” or servitude in Act 3, scene 1 with Shakespeare’s depiction of either Caliban or Ariel as slaves or servants. Why does Shakespeare use the language of slavery for both kinds of relationships? (If you choose Caliban, you might discuss him either as Prospero’s slave or as Stephano’s slave.)
4. Discuss Prospero and Caliban’s relationship as a parent-child relationship. There is much “parenting” imagery in the play and many examples of parents and children. In what ways does Prospero function as an adoptive parent to Caliban? How does that relationship compare to other parent-child relationships? Be sure not to merely judge Prospero (“he is a bad father to Caliban and a good father to Miranda”) or to list the differences, but to analyze how Shakespeare uses the idea of parenthood figuratively and symbolically.
5. “The Tempest” takes place in a single day; most of the “action” takes place before the play begins. Choose one or two scenes or passages in order to analyze the theme of memory in the play. How is memory used or manipulated by the various characters? What does memory (or forgetting) provide or offer—does it teach? grant power? create pain or weakness?
6. Choose one or two examples to analyze how Shakespeare use the imagery of sleep or dreams. How does Shakespeare use sleep to represent issues of power and control? of art and imagination? How does he draw parallels between the dream-world and the world of the theater?
1) Gathering Evidence: Due Friday, Feb. 6 in class.
Select one of the following topics. Go through the play and make a list of quotations that you could use as evidence for your paper. (You don't have to write out the entire quotation, but write enough that you'll remember what you're referring to.) You should have at least 8-10 examples, and probably more. Write down anything that could possibly be useful--you will go through these later and sort them out. Then start to think about which pieces of evidence are most relevant, how to make connections between pieces of evidence, what the evidence reveals about the play, and what kind of argument you might be able to make.
2) Paper: Due Friday, Feb. 13 in class.
Using the evidence you gathered, write a 4-5 page analytical paper on “The Tempest.” This paper should have a clear thesis statement and should be grounded in evidence from the text in question, including quotations. Your paper’s argument should attempt to answer both “how” and “why:” how does Shakespeare use a particular theme, and why do you think he employs it that way? Close reading should be the foundation for your analysis, with attention paid to the details of language: symbolism, imagery, metaphors, word choice, and/or poetic technique, where applicable.
Topics
1. Discuss Shakespeare’s use of images of performance, acting, and theatricality in “The Tempest.” Focus your argument closely on an element of this theme, such as Prospero’s “staging” of scenes, Antonio “acting” the part of Duke, or Ariel creating theatrical illusions.
2. Discuss one example of the opposition between “art”/“magic” and “nature” in “The Tempest.” Choose a particular scene or passage to analyze. You might compare Ariel or Prospero as “art” and Caliban as “nature;” discuss Gonzalo’s imagined commonwealth; or analyze natural imagery and metaphors in a scene of your choosing.
3. Compare Ferdinand and Miranda’s description of love as “slavery” or servitude in Act 3, scene 1 with Shakespeare’s depiction of either Caliban or Ariel as slaves or servants. Why does Shakespeare use the language of slavery for both kinds of relationships? (If you choose Caliban, you might discuss him either as Prospero’s slave or as Stephano’s slave.)
4. Discuss Prospero and Caliban’s relationship as a parent-child relationship. There is much “parenting” imagery in the play and many examples of parents and children. In what ways does Prospero function as an adoptive parent to Caliban? How does that relationship compare to other parent-child relationships? Be sure not to merely judge Prospero (“he is a bad father to Caliban and a good father to Miranda”) or to list the differences, but to analyze how Shakespeare uses the idea of parenthood figuratively and symbolically.
5. “The Tempest” takes place in a single day; most of the “action” takes place before the play begins. Choose one or two scenes or passages in order to analyze the theme of memory in the play. How is memory used or manipulated by the various characters? What does memory (or forgetting) provide or offer—does it teach? grant power? create pain or weakness?
6. Choose one or two examples to analyze how Shakespeare use the imagery of sleep or dreams. How does Shakespeare use sleep to represent issues of power and control? of art and imagination? How does he draw parallels between the dream-world and the world of the theater?
Friday, January 16, 2009
Short writing assignment: The Lotos-Eaters
For Tuesday:
1. Read the entire poem at least 3-4 times. Look up any unfamiliar words in the dictionary.
2. Find your assigned stanza and read it again several times. Read it out loud. Pay attention to how it sounds.
3. Now re-read it with a pen or pencil in hand, and start to mark up the passage. Answer these questions:
-What is its meter, and does it diverge at any point from its regular meter? (Mark stressed and unstressed beats)
-What is its rhyme scheme (the pattern of rhymes)?
Does it use any of the following techniques?:
-alliteration (repetition of first letter of word: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers)
-consonance (repetition of consonant sounds within words: lift sweet and swift)
-assonance (molten golden notes)
4. Look for unusual images, metaphors, similes, and surprising word choices. Look for repeated images, patterns in language, shifts in tone, etc. Underline, circle, or make whatever notations will help you. Make notes to yourself in the margins.
Due: Friday, Jan. 23 in class
Write an analysis of 1-2 pages on your stanza, analyzing how and why Tennyson uses these techniques. What mood does he create? How does the sound of the words add to my understanding of the poem? Why does he choose one word/image over another?
1. Read the entire poem at least 3-4 times. Look up any unfamiliar words in the dictionary.
2. Find your assigned stanza and read it again several times. Read it out loud. Pay attention to how it sounds.
3. Now re-read it with a pen or pencil in hand, and start to mark up the passage. Answer these questions:
-What is its meter, and does it diverge at any point from its regular meter? (Mark stressed and unstressed beats)
-What is its rhyme scheme (the pattern of rhymes)?
Does it use any of the following techniques?:
-alliteration (repetition of first letter of word: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers)
-consonance (repetition of consonant sounds within words: lift sweet and swift)
-assonance (molten golden notes)
4. Look for unusual images, metaphors, similes, and surprising word choices. Look for repeated images, patterns in language, shifts in tone, etc. Underline, circle, or make whatever notations will help you. Make notes to yourself in the margins.
Due: Friday, Jan. 23 in class
Write an analysis of 1-2 pages on your stanza, analyzing how and why Tennyson uses these techniques. What mood does he create? How does the sound of the words add to my understanding of the poem? Why does he choose one word/image over another?
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