ESSAY #2 BC 3180y
This essay assignment offers you a great deal of flexibility. In fact, I encourage you to choose your own topic, rather than working with one of the suggested topics below.
Here are the parameters: Your essay must have a clear, intelligent thesis, which you state and argue in five to six well organized, well written, and well developed pages. The following questions are meant to stimulate your thinking, but also to leave you room to carve out your own topic. You'll need to narrow the question appropriately in accordance with your own interests, and to develop a specific thesis appropriate to a paper of this length. Be sure, too, that your essay is analytical, rather than merely descriptive. Don't just tell your reader what happens; consider as well how and why it happens. If you choose to write a comparative essay, be certain that you explicitly compare and contrast the texts that you're examining, rather than merely discussing a question as it relates to both texts. Finally, while this assignment is not an explication, you should support your thesis with close readings of the text or texts. I strongly encourage you to talk to me about your essay as you work. I'm happy to help carve out topics, hash out arguments, read outlines, and read typed rough drafts.
This essay is due WEDNESDAY APRIL 25 at 4 pm in my mailbox in Barnard 417.
1. Both Melville and Dickinson wrestle with Calvinist ideas in their texts. How similar are their theological concerns? And how similar are the literary strategies with which they explore these concerns? You'll have to think beyond the obvious here; clearly, Dickinson's spare lyric poetry is formally different from Melville's whale of a novel. You might, for example, consider the extent to which Dickinson and Melville incorporate traditional religious forms into their texts. How similar are Dickinson's use of hymn meters and Melville's manipulation of Father Mapple's sermon?
2. Several of the writers we've studied consider the relationship between language and truth, or between language and material reality. Consider this relationship as one writer defines it, or compare and contrast the relationship in two writers. How are language and truth related? Is there a gap between them? If so, does this gap present an obstacle to be overcome, or an opportunity for creative expression?
3. Compare the use of frontispieces in Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. How are the authors represented in print? How do the frontispieces relate to the title pages that face them and the prefaces that follow them? How do they relate to the books' texts?
4. Several of our texts represent mothers and their children. There are model mothers, bad mothers, and mothers who fall somewhere in between. Consider representations of motherhood in one text, or compare treatment of motherhood in two texts. You'll have to carve out a particular angle, depending on the texts you choose. Issues you might consider include the relationship between motherhood and society, the impact of motherhood on individual autonomy, motherhood and slavery, and the moral valence of motherhood. You may want to draw on Catharine Beecher's Treatise on Domestic Economy and/or Nancy Cott's The Bonds of Womanhood, on reserve in Barnard library.
5. Design your own topic. We've been reading rich and exciting texts, and the above list of topics doesn't even begin to describe the possibilities. Your essay should remain closely text-based, and must involve close reading of at least one (and probably not more than two) of the assigned texts. If you select this option, you must confer with me (either in person or by e-mail) about your topic by April 11.
OTHER TIPS:
Use MLA format as it is described in the English Department's guide to the preparation of papers and the MLA Handbook. Note that MLA format requires that you number your pages.
Pay attention to transitions. Aside from making your prose smoother, effective transitions can clarify your argument by clarifying the relationships among your points.
Proofread your papers carefully. Seemingly minor surface errors detract from the polish and professionalism of your essay, and they do affect my impression of your work. Read your essay aloud to yourself or to your roommate. This can help you identify passages that are wordy or unclear, and it can also help you to catch surface errors.
If you need an extension, speak to me as soon as possible, but don't just vanish if you discover at the last minute that you can't finish your paper. It's better to hand your work in on time, but it's better to talk to me about why you can't than to leave me wondering what's happened.