ENG110Y: Narrative
Instructor: Ann-Barbara Graff
Office: Room 291
Office Hours: MWF 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Class Meeting Times: MWF 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
First Essay Topics
Choose one topic from the following list:
1. Discuss how an account or archetype used by one author (for instance, Tacitus or Carter) differs from the account or archetype of another (for instance, Ovid or Warner). You might consider the impact of generic conventions, historical context, etc.
2. Reviews of the movie Fight Club claim that it used violence in a highly original way. The reviewers claim that in the film violence is not gratuitous or cliched but has both a purgative and restorative effect. If the reviewers had taken ENG110 they would know that Fight Club is not unique in it appreciation of violence. Compare and contrast the use of violence or violent imagery in two texts (without reference to Fight Club).
3. Explore how the reader's original responses to a character or theme are manipulated and forced to undergo transformation from antagonism to sympathy or vice versa in "Bluebeard's Egg," "The Ant and the Grasshopper" tales, or "Bisclavret," for instance.
4. Discuss the theme of guilt and responsibility in Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" OR the them of (artistic) compulsion in ONE of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the Pygmalion stories, Ovid's "Tereus, Procne, and Philomela," or "The Lady of Shalott."
5. "Self-knowledge is often the product of intense suffering." Discuss with reference to the experience of the main characters in one of "The Nun's Priest's Tale," "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
This assignment is worth 5 % of your total grade. The essay must not be more than 1200 words (5 pages, typed, double-spaced) and should be handed in on or before Wednesday November 8, 2000.
Penalties for lateness: Extensions should not be asked for and will not be granted EXCEPT in cases of serious emergencies, e.g., medical crisis. Late essay will be penalized 5% per day (including weekends and holidays).
Go Back to Main Page
Posted 11 October 2000