|
E335: Literature of Victorian England Paper #1 Prompt and Suggestions Al Drake | Classroom | Wed. 3-4 | 714-434-1612 Formal Prompt: Choose a text by one author on our syllabus and write a 5-page essay that is clear in its thesis, structure, and language. You may also write a comparative paper on two authors / texts, though that structure might entail a paper somewhat longer than the suggested 5-page length. Some Topics: I generally leave paper topics up to advanced English majors, but here are some suggestions that might be useful if you are interested in writing about the first several authors on our syllabus. 1. Carlyle's prose style is integral to his goals as a "sage writer." Explore the stylistic characteristics you find most interesting. What are they, and to what specific effects does Carlyle employ them? How does his style allow him to respond to what we have been calling a "crisis of authority"? 2. Explore Newman's grounds in The Idea of a University for arguing that education ought to be concerned solely with intellectual excellence. Address also the extent to which you believe higher education today would meet with Newman's approval, and whether his conception of liberal education is tenable for the twenty-first century. 3. In our selections from Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Newman reconstructs the primary persons and events that influenced him first to participate in the Oxford Movement promoting Anglican reform, and later, in 1845, to convert to Catholicism. Analyze his handling of several of the factors that influenced him, and address his claims that acceptance of Catholic doctrine does not invalidate his strong advocacy of intellectual freedom. 4. In On the Subjection of Women, J.S. Mill argues against his contemporaries' widely held prejudices about supposed differences in mental and moral capacity between men and women. What strategies does he follow in undermining those prejudices, and what kind of gender relations does he advocate? 5. In his Autobiography, J.S. Mill deals with the influence of Benthamite principles on the formation of his character early in life. How does Mill analyze the inadequacies in his education and early utilitarian reformist goals, and how does he explain the transformation wrought in him by his mental breakdown and recovery? 6. Tennyson's In Memoriam traces the speaker's attempt to deal with grief over the early death of a friend. Explore the poetic strategies of interest to you. A few prominent ones would be the speaker's dramatization of his struggle to generate language adequate to his emotional states, and his rhetorical strategies in conveying a movement from near despair towards optimism and faith. 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. Rough Draft: 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 Wednesday of Week 6 (March 5). 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.
|