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E212: British Literature since 1760 Prompt for Paper #1 Alfred J. Drake. Office: 423 University Hall Formal Prompt: Choose one of the topics below and write a 5-page essay that is clear in its thesis, structure, and language. (You may also choose a topic of your own devising if I approve it in advance and if it is about an author on our syllabus.) Below are some topics; I'll add one on Wollstonecraft and one on De Quincey soon. 1. Write about one poem from "Songs of Innocence" and its paired contrary poem in "Songs of Experience." Your paper should include some explanation of Blake's doctrine of "contraries." 2. Choose one romantic author and explore that author's treatment of nature, imagination, language, the power of poetry, or whichever romantic concerns you consider most appropriate. 3. Compare Shelley's "Defense of Poetry" with Wordsworth's "Preface" to Lyrical Ballads. In what ways do they differ or agree on issues such as imagination, inspiration, poetic language and subject, the poet's prospects for uniting the human community, etc.? 4. Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) analyzes gender relations as a system of repression. By what stylistic and argumentative means does Wollstonecraft undermine claims made against "the rights of woman"? Informal Suggestions: Email me or come to an office hour with some ideas about your author/text, I'll respond with some ideas and questions that should help you start drafting the paper. I do not require that you turn in a rough draft before the final draft is due, though I suggest that you do so I can comment and return it in time to help for the final draft. I do, however, require that you include with your final draft a copy of some notes or an early draft. The final draft will be due Friday of Week 5 (March 7th.), as indicated on the syllabus. Please look over some of the materials on writing available via hyperlinks on the "Syllabus" page. "Deductive Essays" is particularly recommended because in it I comment on the basics about structure and purpose in college papers. Another set of handouts deals with how to introduce and cite a literary text properly -- that is certainly something every writer needs to know.
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