No More Blog Prompts

With only a week and a half of class left to go I've decided to resist the urge to give you any more blog prompts. You'll still need to complete two posts this week (on Sterne and Johnson) and one post next week (on Goldsmith), but you can respond to the works however you choose. Please remember to post your entries on time, i.e. before class begins.

Fantomina Prompt

This week I offer you a choice of two prompts for Eliza Haywood's Fantomina. The first requires you to reflect on Fantomina's place in the history of the novel, while the second asks you to contextualize the book within this course. The second prompt might be easier for those of you who are less familiar with the history of the novel.

1. In recent decades, Eliza Haywood has been cited by many critics as a key figure in the development of the novel. However, in this period the novel is still in its infancy; the kinds of novels we're used to reading wouldn't really coalesce into a genre until the middle of the 18th century, and then only tentatively. In order to get into this vast and controversial debate about what, exactly, constitutes a novel, I want you to ask yourself, how does Fantomina fulfill your expectations of a novel? How does it defy them? Does Fantomina feel like a novel, or like something else entirely? Feel free to draw connections between Fantomina and other works of literature, but please make sure to give plenty of attention to Fantomina itself.

2. The 8th edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature is the first to include Fantomina (a fact you'll remember from our book debacle at the beginning of the semester). Why do you think Fantomina wasn't included in earlier editions? How do you see it fitting into the story of Engilsh literature as it has been told by this class's syllabus? Can you see Haywood picking up any thematic threads from other authors we've read? Do you think that Fantomina is a valuable addition to both the anthology? Why or why not?

Thesis Statements Power Point

As requested by numerous people in the class, here is a link to my power point on thesis statements.

Blog Promp for Pope

Since you'll be preparing a draft of your comparative essay this week we'll just have one blog post, but it must respond to this prompt. You can use either of Pope's poems that we're studying in class.

The 18th century is often referred to as the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, and Pope is often lauded as one of the authors most responsible for this characterization (the period is also sometimes referred to as the Age of Pope). For your blog post this week, choose a passage from one of the poems and write about how reason and rationality figure in the text. In the Essay on Criticism reason is lauded while in The Rape of the Lock reason's opposing forces are denigrated. Some questions you might ask are: What is Pope's conception of reason? How is it different from the concept as employed by writers we studied earlier this semester (particularly Milton)? Is this sort of reason available to everyone (i.e. "common" sense)? If reason is a new source of power in Pope's moral universe, what sources of power is reason supplanting?

Comparative Essay Assignment

In lieu of the online edition project that we had originally planned for November, each student will complete a 5-7 page essay comparing the treatment of a theme in two works by two different authors. You may interpret the term "theme" as broadly as you wish. However, extremely broad themes (an example might be "Christianity" or "love") will be tougher to pack into a paper this short; narrowly-conceived themes will likely result in tighter, more convincing arguments.

Here are some ideas for potential themes: allegorical representations of Queen Elizabeth; the portrayal of fools and clowns; the benefits of a contemplative life; England's movement from a Catholic to a Protestant nation; homosociality / homosexuality; the weakness of human reason; the idea of "progress," particularly relating to economic expansion; portrayals of marriage and domestic life; the adaptation of British folk stories and myths; "bawdy" jokes and stories. This is by no means an exhaustive list and brownie points will be awarded if you can come up with a compelling theme of your own.

Once you have chosen a theme you will need to construct an argument about how the two authors handle this theme differently. Your argument might depend on historical differences from one author's period to the other's, the differences in the two works' genres, different use of rhetorical or poetic figures, etc. You should avoid arguments that rely too heavily on biographical information about the authors. If you need help deciding if your argument is acceptable you should consult these handouts from UNC's Writing Center: Argument and Thesis Statements. The Writing Center also has a general handout on writing about literature that is very good.

Just as important as your argument is the evidence you provide to support it. This is the part of the paper where I would like to see what you've learned this semester. You should support your argument with close, sustained analysis of your texts using the critical methods we have developed in class. I would expect to see a few quotations from each text and engagement with the rhetoric and poetry terms we have learned in class.

Your papers will be evaluated according to the following rubric. These bullet points describe an ideal essay, and the characteristics are presented in order of their importance to the final grade:

• Argument. The thesis takes a tenable stance on an important issue relating to both texts. The argument is original, surprising and engaging. The thesis is subject to debate, unlike a simple statement of fact or an obvious, uncontroversial interpretation of the text. The author does not simply rehash an argument previously made during one of our class meetings.
  
• Evidence. The author has chosen important, substantial passages from each text, cited them directly and explained them thoroughly. The author makes use of many of the poetry and rhetoric terms discussed in class, applying them directly to the text and linking them back to the essay's thesis statement in surprising and sophisticated ways.
  
• Organization. The author moves the reader through the essay in a clear, logical and easy-to-understand manner. The entire essay supports the thesis clearly and directly, without wandering off-topic. Each paragraph contains a topic sentence that directly and clearly supports or explains the essay's main thesis, and all evidence in each paragraph relates directly to the argument proposed in its topic sentence.
  
• Style. The essay is written in an engaging, authoritative style that is free of spelling and grammatical errors. Transitions between paragraphs are smooth and logical. The essay's introduction and conclusion reinforce the main thesis while contextualizing the argument within the broader scope of the course. The essay contains one or two hilarious jokes (okay, this last one isn't serious but not every academic essay has to be written in a dry, boring style).
  

A draft of this essay is due in class on Friday, November 17. If you do not have a printed draft at least four pages in length at the beginning of class on the 17th you will be penalized on your final grade for the paper.

The final version of this essay is due at the beginning of class on Monday, November 27. Late papers will be penalized heavily. This paper will count for 15% of your final grade for this course.

Blog Prompt

For the week of October 30-November 3.

From this point forward most of the verse we will be reading will come in the form of the heroic couplet, which is verse composed solely in rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter. For one of this week's blog posts I would like you to choose one of the poems written in heroic couplets and
write about how the heroic couplet helps to create a different tone than the more complex verse forms that we have studied in class. The basic question your post should answer is: why is this poem written in heroic couplets rather than any other verse form?

Blog Prompt for Paradise Lost

We'll be working on Milton's Paradise Lost all this week. For one of your two blog posts I would like each of you to respond to the following prompt:

Paradise Lost tells such a fascinating story that it's easy to lose sight of how Milton's masterful manipulation of poetic form influences our reactions to these events. In order to reconnect with Milton's delicate use of rhetoric, I would like you to select a pivotal moment in the narrative (i.e. when something important / exciting / crazy happens) and construct an argument about how Milton's use of form and rhetoric influences the reader's perception or reaction to that part of the plot. Remember, Milton's agenda is not always clear; often he lures the reader into rooting for Satan and his minions and/or reacting negatively to God, Jesus and the other "good guys." As always, the use of extensive, specific evidence from the text is required, and use of the rhetorical terms and critical methods we've developed in class is encouraged.

One more thing about reading Paradise Lost: necessity dictates that we're only reading selections from this text, so if you're having trouble following the plot you may want to check one of the numerous book-by-book summaries on the internet. However, I will warn you that these are, of course, NOT substitutes for reading the assigned books, as often their summaries are heavily biased and sometimes just dead wrong.