American Literature I, Final Essay Prompt (1 of 3) 2000 words minimum, Due May 8 in Sections
Concepts and Methods in Critical Theory Work with critical theory to craft an original and provocative reading of early American literature. After browsing Purdue’s “Introductory Guide to Critical Theory” site (https://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/), select an interesting and promising methodology for analyzing a literary text of your choosing. Then, research the history and structure of the theoretical approach: discover the who, when, and why of your theory’s development, grapple with key concepts (The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, available online through NYU databases, is an excellent source), consider the theory’s “blind spots” in relation to questions it might obscure or neglect to consider, and find examples (1-2) of your theory’s application in different literary texts/contexts through databases like JSTOR and Literature Online (Lion). Finally, use this theoretical framework as a lens to close read your literary work and develop an argument that addresses the implications of your analysis within the text’s larger context/history.
Remember, it is unnecessary to read all the critical commentary related to your approach. You will, however, need to outline a theoretical framework for your original argument by identifying specific critics or works that you follow, defining key terms / concepts you will use, and briefly summarizing your approach. No matter which theory you choose as your lens, be sure that your argument is shaped by the primary text and not the other way around. In other words, do not distort a text to fit a particular theoretical angle. Often, literature is most compelling when it fails to conform to expectations.
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Horror and the Middle Ages: Final Paper Assignment 8-12 Pages (double-spaced) Due Sunday, August 13, 2017 by 9am 50% of Grade for the Course
For your final paper, you will be producing an original piece of scholarship that contributes to research or theories of horror in the Middle Ages and beyond. The best critical papers are driven by one succinct inquiry, whether about a certain object (a medieval text, a horror film, etc.), broader philosophical / ideological topic (“reverend dread,” the ethics / politics of the horror film, etc.), or the application of terminology and a theoretical framework (the sublime, abjection, art-dread, etc.). Any successful piece of scholarship will demonstrate sustained engagement with both one’s topic and the conversation surrounding one’s topic (what have other critics already said about it?). Remember, it is unnecessary to read or cover all the critical commentary related to your approach. You will, however, need to build scaffolding for your original argument by identifying specific critics or works that you follow, defining key terms / concepts you will use, and briefly summarizing your unique intervention (generally referred to as a thesis statement).
No matter the topic, be sure that your argument is shaped by the primary text and not the other way around. In other words, do not distort a text to fit a theoretical angle. Often, the text is most compelling when it fails to conform to expectations. Consider the “blind spots” in a text or the accompanying criticism in relation to the questions it might obscure or neglect to consider. Finally, perform a close reading that develops an argument that shows the implications of your analysis within the text’s larger context / history.
As a preface to your essay, compose an abstract of 100-200 words that succinctly states and positions your argument: the texts that you will address, aesthetic or literary devices of interest, historical context, and significance of your contribution—why your voice matters. Your essay should be followed by a Works Cited list (MLA or Chicago are fine), composed of the resources that you reference. Lastly, but also firstly, be sure to give your work an appropriate and provocative title.
I will grade these essays using the following rubric. Please refer to it when designing / editing your draft to ensure that you have considered all elements of a successful and convincing essay:
Demonstrated knowledge of material
Proper citation of source material
Organization and positioning of argument within critical conversation
Creativity
Editing / Evidence of Revision
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British Literature II: Example Mid-term Questions
1.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 60
Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood.
Identify the author and title of the poem from which these stanzas are taken. Then, identify the meter, rhyme scheme, and verse form of these stanzas. Lastly, explicate these lines within the greater context of the poem.
2.
From John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government: “For a man, not having power of his own life, cannot by compact or his own consent enslave himself to any one, nor put himself under the absolute, arbitrary power of another, to take away his life, when he pleases. Nobody can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take away his own life cannot give another power over it. Indeed having, by his fault, forfeited his own life by some act that deserves death; he to whom he has forfeited it may (when he has him in his power) delay to take it, and make use of him to his own service, and he does him no injury by it. For whenever he finds the hardship of his slavery outweigh the value of his life, ’tis in his power by resisting the will of his master to draw on himself the death he desires.”
In the above passage, Locke describes what he considers to be the “perfect condition” of slavery. According to Locke, why does man not have “power over his own life”? To what “state” does Locke compare the distribution of power in slavery, thereby justifying this condition? How is it possible for the enslaved person to “draw on himself the death he desires,” if man does not hold “power over his own life”?
3.
From Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina: “He was fired with the first sight of her; and though he did not presently take any farther notice of her than giving her two or three hearty kisses, yet she, who now understood that language but too well, easily saw they were the prelude to more substantial joys… His wild desire burst out in all his words and actions: he called her little angel, cherubim, swore he must enjoy her, though death were to be the consequence, devoured her lips, her breasts with greedy kisses, held to his burning bosom her half-yielding, half-reluctant body, nor suffered her to get loose till he had ravaged all, and glutted each rapacious sense with the sweet beauties of the pretty Celia, for that was the name she bore in this second expedition.”
Why do you think the narrator refers to the exchange between the lovers as a type of “language”? Why might “pretty Celia” not have known this language before? Explain how the narrator’s description of the encounter raises questions about sexual agency in the passage.
Essay In Joseph Addison’s “Pleasure of the Imagination,” he writes that the “man of polite imagination… can converse with a picture and find an agreeable companion in a statue,” gesturing toward a unique form of internalized social interaction, where art takes the place of “the other.” However, according to the author, imagination also allows one to both take “a kind of property in everything he sees” and also “look[] upon the world, as it were, in another light, and discover[] in it a multitude of charms that conceal themselves from the generality of mankind.” Using examples from at least two additional texts from our syllabus, write a short essay that addresses the social implications, as portrayed through literature, of Addison’s theoretical ideas about imagination.
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American Literature I: Mid-term Prep, Explication Practice
Is it time for me to talk again of conquests? Or must I only enjoy them in silence? I must write to you the impulses of my mind; or I must not write at all. You are not so morose, as to wish me to become a nun, would our country and religion allow it. I ventured yesterday to throw aside the habiliments of mourning, and to array myself in those more adapted to my taste. We arrived at Col. Farington’s about one o’clock. The Col. handed me out of the carriage, and introduced me to a large company assembled in the hall. My name was pronounced with an emphasis; and I was received with the most flattering tokens of respect. When we were summoned to dinner, a young gentleman in clerical dress offered me his hand, and led me to a table furnished with an elegant and sumptuous repast, with more gallantry and address than commonly fall to the share of students. He sat opposite me at table; and whenever I raised my eye, it caught his. The ease and politeness of his manners, with his particular attention, raised by curiosity, and induced me to ask Mrs. Laiton who he was?
Identify the Writer:
Identify the Text:
Date of publication / composition:
What is the general context of the passage?
Questions to consider when thinking about significance:
What role does gender play in the passage? Does the gender of the writer affect the style or content of the passage?
What role does nationality, race, ethnicity, class, or religion play in the passage?
In what genre would you place the text from which this passage is pulled?
What imagery is evoked if any?
What is the tone / mood of the passage?
Characterize the style of the passage as much as possible.
What type of reader does the passage anticipate / create?
Choose two other works that relate to your text in some way. Highlight a notable passage in each. Explain the connection and what this might tell us about early American literature / culture.
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American Literature I: Final Exam Essay Prompt
Question: The Ghosts of Early American Literature
“If death weighs on the living brain of the living, and still more on the brains of revolutionaries, it must then have some spectral density. To weigh (lasten) is also to charge, tax, impose, indebt, accuse, assign, enjoin. And the more life there is, the graver the specter of the other becomes, the heavier its imposition. And the more the living have to answer for it. To answer for the dead, to respond to the dead. To correspond and have it out with [s’expliquer avec] obsessive haunting, in the absence of any certainty or symmetry.” – Jacques Derrida, Spectres of Marx (1993)
How are the texts we’ve read this semester haunted and by what? How do you see early American literature “having it out with” the “specter of the other” and to what effect? Your response could examine character and plot, style and rhetoric, philosophy and ideology, or history and politics, but it must include specific examples from at least two texts, which cannot include “The Fall of the House of Usher.” While you will want to propose one coherent argument or insight, you should choose texts that are different enough so as to illustrate your point from at least two unique perspectives.
Gina A. Dominick, PhD 