Using at least three (3) peer-reviewed, scholarly sources, write an essay of 1500-2000 words (or 6-8 pages) on one of the following subjects. Please note that websites such as wikipedia, sparknotes, schmoop.com, blogs, and general university websites do not count as scholarly sources. If you have any questions about what constitutes a scholarly source, you are encouraged to check with me before using them.
Format:
• 12pt Times New Roman font; double-spacing throughout; one-inch margins on all sides; pages numbered (last name and page number on the top right-hand corner of each page); pages stapled together
• Please do not add a cover page to your essay. Instead, include on the top left-hand corner of the first page you name, student number, course code and section, the instructor’s name, and the date of submission. The title should be centered, but with no special formatting (no boldface, no underlining, no italics except for book titles, 12-point Times New Roman Font); See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ for examples.
• You must cite all of your sources both in the body of your paper and in a separate Works Cited page. Follow the MLA (Modern Languages Association) style of documentation (see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/).
Essay prompts:
1. The natural environment figures heavily in both Frankenstein. Identify the elements of one aesthetic theory (the sublime, the beautiful, the uncanny, or the abject) and, using examples from the novels, compare their treatments of nature. Remember to include an expository paragraph that defines and lays out the aspects of the theory that you will be discussing. NOTE: dictionary definitions of the uncanny, sublime, and abject reflect common usage and definitions of the words, not the theories themselves. For this prompt, you are to use the aesthetic theory.
2. Both Alice Munro’s “Open Secrets,” and Shelley Jackson’s Skin: Ineradicable Stain address the ways in which people are created both by the language we use to tell our stories, and the ways in which our stories are imposed on us from outside. Find a common argument between each text and use it to guide your exploration of the following:
Begin with an episode from “Open Secrets”. Discuss how language is used to impose an identity on one of the characters. Is it possible for that character to change his or her identity within the town? Then, discuss the significance of Shelley Jackson’s taking this idea to the extreme by having volunteers actually tattoo words on their skin. How does the actual material fact of the tattoo support or change this idea? What does it mean to actually turn people into words?
3. So far in the course we have discussed how literary forms and genres carry with them assumptions and ideas about what stories should be, and what they reflect about the world. Choose one genre we discussed in this course (the gothic, the romance, Romanticism, Science Fiction, the Pastoral, Utopia, or Dystopia). Does Shelley Jackson’s Skin: Ineradicable Stain project reflect or undermine the elements of those genres? Remember to begin with an expository paragraph that defines the genre you will explore and the elements of that genre you will discuss in your essay.
4. Compare the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the replicant in “Rachel”. For these authors, are there limits to the human, and, if so, what are they and how does each author describe them?
5. In what ways to race and gender affect Rachel in “Rachel,” even after her status as replicant is revealed?
6. Absurdism and Existentialism are both responses to the threat of nothingness and meaninglessness posed by the random nature of existence. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa shuffles into the living room in spite of the isolation imposed on him by his consideration for his family. In “The Nose,” Major Kovaloff must endure a structure of seemingly meaningless conventions associated with rank in the civil service to convince his own nose return to its place on his face. In “The Second Bakery Attack,” the main character and his wife navigate a Tokyo that has been overtaken by American corporatism. Compare the small gestures of empowerment each main character attempts to make within their relatively powerless positions. Do these small acts of rebellion offer the characters any relief from their helplessness?
7. Overall, this course has been asking what happens to narrative when it encounters monstrosity: monsters, the unacceptable, the massive, the unconscionable. Choose one (1) text from each major literary period of the course (the Romantic Period, Modernism, and Postmodernism), and, using what you know about form and genre, write an essay explaining what you think happens to narrative cohesion in its encounter with the monstrous.
*Things to keep in mind when writing your essay:
* Quote directly from the text to support the main points of your argument. Close textual analysis involves incorporating pertinent quotations from the story or novel into your argument, and explaining in detail what you understand the significance of the passage you have cited to be. Be attentive to such textual features as language/diction, imagery/symbolism, setting, narrative structure, and perspective of narration.
* Avoid plot summaries or lengthy repetitions of “what happens” in the story or novel; assume that your reader is familiar with the text. I am interested in your analysis – that is, the argument you are going to make about your concept, based on the specific textual evidence you are going to draw on. An insightful analysis depends on your familiarity with the text, but that familiarity in itself is not what the essay should be concerned to demonstrate. Bear in mind that providing a description or summary of what happens in the text does not constitute an analysis of how those textual events and situations are significant. You must offer your own reading, or interpretation, of the significance of the passages, quotes, and textual features you draw upon in your essay.
* Note about plagiarism:
Failing to adequately document your sources, presenting someone else’s work as your own, and handing in the same assignment for more than one class all constitute academic fraud. Anyone found guilty of this serious offence will be subject to severe sanctions; these may range from receiving a failing grade in the assignment or course in question, to losing all course credits for the academic year, to being expelled from the University. It is your responsibility as a student to familiarize yourself with the University’s policy on academic fraud. For further information, consult the Faculty of Arts website at: http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/eng/students/fraud.html.
6 pages, double space, . Make sure you use the peer reviewed resources. Please dont choose topic 2.
Essays: All essays must conform to the following specifications:
1. Typed using 12-point Times New Roman font; double-spaced; one-inch margins at sides, top, and bottom of page; pages numbered and stapled together.
2. No cover page is necessary; first page should include, in the top right-hand corner: student’s name, student number, course code and section, instructor’s name, and date of submission; title should appear centered, but with no special formatting (no boldface, no underlining, 12-point Times New Roman font). See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ for examples.
3. Proper documentation of any secondary sources referenced in the paper should appear both in in-text citations and in a separate Works Cited page, in the MLA (Modern Languages Association) style (see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/).
