Topics for Final Paper, Module 2

Having reached the end of the term, and finished all other requisites, you are now ready to write the final paper for Module 2. Below you'll find a list of possible topics. In all cases, considering you're close to the end of your undergraduate career, in most cases we have asked for comparative essays: you will choose one of the texts we read in class, and then you will read extensively another one, which suits comparison with the intensive reading. "Promocionales" will choose one topic; "No promocionales" will choose 2.

The final paper should cover 3-5 pages, 1.5-space; Times New Roman/Arial 11. In all cases, you should make reference to the texts through quotations. You may consult critical bibliography, as long as you acknowledge the sources. Try not to use gradesaver or sparknotes, but more academic sources instead, which can be found in www.googlescholar.com
You may consult a dictionary of literary terms if you feel you need it. There is one in the library, in Spanish, whose SID (Sistema Integrado de Bibliotecas UNCuyo, www.sid.uncu.edu.ar) file I have copied here; there are others, in English, on line.
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ubicación: 155-5A Ref D
autor: Ayuso de Vicente, María Victoria; García Gallarín, Consuelo; Solano Santos, Sagrario
título: Diccionario de términos literarios
fecha de publicación: 1997
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Absolutely no plagiarism will be allowed (if it is detected, there will be no chance to write a second version).

The papers will be accepted ONLY IN PRINT (not via e mail). You may bring them to office 226 on Wednesday, August 8th, before 10 a.m. No papers will be accepted AFTER that time and date. If you cannot come on Wednesday, you can leave them BEFORE in the box for American and British Literature. The second paper, for No Promocionales, is due a week later (Wed. August 15th) same time, same place.

We hope you have enjoyed the Modules, and hopefully this will be the beginning of a lifelong relation with literature that will enlighten your existence and free your midns and souls! Nothing better to wish this than Emily Dickinson's words, which we read in her poem:

He ate and drank the precious Words --
His Spirit grew robust --
He knew no more that he was poor,
Nor that his frame was Dust --

He danced along the dingy Days
And this Bequest of Wings
Was but a Book -- What Liberty
A loosened spirit brings --


TOPICS FOR FINAL PAPER

- Analyse deeply the symbol of the fish (marlin) in The Old Man and the Sea, by Hemingway.
- How does Faulkner build and present contrasting characters and social worlds in As I Lay Dying and "Barn Burning"?
- Compare and contrast the role of Nature in The Old Man and the Sea and "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Mc Comber" By Hemingway.
- Analyse in depth the type of society Fitzgeral presents in "Babylon Revisited" and The Great Gatsby.
- Analyse the theme of WAR porttrayed in Bierce's short stories: "Two Military Executions" and "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
- Compare the protagonits' feelings ad reactions to war and what society expects from them in "How to Tell a True War Story" by O'Brien and "Soldier's Home" by Hemingway.
- Prepare a compilation of 10 (ten) poems by any of the authors included in the anthology of contemporary poets we saw in class. Study the 10 poems in depth and write about the author's main themes and style.
- How does Amy Tan deal with the issue of identity in "Half and Half" and "Two Kinds"? (you may read this other chapter from The Joy Luck Club in http://www.angelfire.com/ma/MyGuardianangels/index9.html (remeber to click on "Next" after each page; the story covers several pages)
-Read the poems "Indian Boarding School: The Runaways" and "Family reunion" by Louise Erdrich, and compare the treatment she makes of the issues of family bonds and ethnic identity in these texts and in "The Red Convertible". You may read the poems in http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/louise-erdrich

Ethnic literatures: Louise Erdrich

The idea of a melting pot in which all cultures mix and melt has long been left aside. Instead, the metaphor of the mosaic is more commonly used to refer to American culture: a country where different cultures coexist, side by side; each contributing to the whole, but keeping at the same time their distinctiveness.

This acceptance and respect of diversity has led to the description of America as MULTICULTURAL society. The main ethnic groups that are part of America's multiculturalism are African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. These terms are, of course, quite imprecise, as immigrants from Asia came from different countries, African slaves were brught from several parts of Africa, Hispanics may be of any of many Latin American countries, and Native Americans have very different ancestries, languages, cultures, etc.





Yet, all these groups contribute to the richness and variety of American multiculturalism, in literature as well as in other fields. Their writing came to public notice especially from the 1970s onwards. Much of the literature by ethnic American writers deals with the issue of identity (their social, racial, and individual identity). They write about looking for who they are, where they come from (so another important theme is coming to terms with the past), and what it means to be American, but also something else.

Many use post-modern literary techniques, a colloquial style that relates to the importance of oral cultures in their places / families of origin, and characters that aim at deconstructing the stereotypes that most WASP writers had presented before the 1970s.



The first contemporary novelist we will study is the Native American Louise Erdrich. In the power point presentation we used in class, you may find more information about her, the historical background, postmodern characteristics, main themes and a brief reference to the novel Love Medicine, in which "The Red Convertible" is included.

The Old Man and the Sea, by E. Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea was written in 1952, in the declining years of Ernest Hemingway. Nine years later the author would commit suicide, leaving this work as a testimony of the inner struggle between life and death.
Only a year later its publication, the novel The Old Man and the Sea, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was highly responsible for Hemingway’s Nobel Prize in 1954. The remarkable success of this work is due to the profound issues developed in the story: the simplicity of duty, the dignity of old age, the teaching of experience, the permanent sacrifice of life and the recognition of the wise.
Because he himself lived in Cuba, and met there the strength of the sea, the beauty of the landscape and the nobility of the people, Hemingway is the perfect witness to fictionalize the life of a fishermen he knew well. Aged Santiago sees himself in his last “battle” trying to catch an enormous marlin. In his fight, the protagonist exhibits his wisdom and experience to defeat his big enemy, and he constantly gives himself to the suffering of old age and to the mysterious power of the sea.

Activity: after you finish reading the novel, form groups of four or five students (not more) and complete the following study guide.
You are required to hand in your guide (one per group), in paper, next Friday, June 15th, in class. If you have doubts you may consult Professor Cuervo next Monday in office hours (16.30 to 18.30 off.226)
(For the preparation of this study guide I have used the defintions from Merriam Webster´s Reader´s Handbook. Massachusetts, Merriam Webster Inc.: 1997.)
Study Guide
1.Author (Write brief information about the author, mainly related to The Old Man and the Sea)
2.Point of view (the perspective from which a story is presented to the reader. The three main points of view are first person, third person singular and third person omniscient)
3.Protagonist (brief description)
4.Style (“a distinctive manner of expression”. Consider how ideas are transmitted, the language used, the words chosen, etc.)
5.Climax (retelling of the event)
6.Symbols (explain two symbols present in the story. You may quote the Dictionary of Symbols)
7.Themes (explain deeply two themes you observe in the novel)

A Dream Deferred

The history of African Americans was marked by deep injustices (starting with slavery, which was abolished in 1865; followed by legal segregation, in practice until 1965; and its various manifestations which attempted against the social and civil rights, and even the identity of a whole people.



Against such a negative background, artists among other members of the African American community played an important role in defining identity in positive termns, fighting for recognition of equal rights, and contributiing to the richness, diversity and multi-voiced character of American multicultural art.

Lorraine Hansberry, a playwright commited to the African American cause, wrote her paly A Raisin in the Sun which was produced in 1959 for the first time. The play takes its title from a poem by Langston Hughes. He was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Below you can read Hughes' text:



What happens to a dream deferred?



Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?



Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.



Or does it explode?



This poem plays with the idea of the dream (the American dream, which has been part of American life, history, ideology and society from the very beginning); only that his series of rhetorical questions turn the "dream" inside-out: what happens when people cannot reach their dream? when it is postponed?



Lorraine Hansberry's play is an attempt to answer the question. The dream may take different forms in each character's case, but they're all unified by the desire of equality.

As you read the play, take into consideration the following ideas:

* The dream(s)

* Asagai's role in helping define dreams and identity

* Realism vs. idealism

* Vanished dreams

* Death (real ans symbolic)

* Role of men. Manhood

And think deeply about the following questions:

* Is Lena a nurturing or an overbearing mother?

* How does the nature of the family account for the dreams they have?

* Which economic, social and moral pressures do the characters feel?

Cooperative learning: Poetry

In order to get a general view of the polyphonic character of twentieth- and twenty first- century poetry, we have read a brief anthology from which you chose your favorite poems. For the second mid-term test, and for the colloquy as well, you will read, atudy and analyze all poems. In order to get ready for that, now we'll do two activities.

Activity n° 1
In the "Comments" section below, include a brief note about the author you chose and his/her style or other characteristics you think are relevant (eventually I'll edit the comments, if there's anything to add). VERY IMPORTANT: this morning, many of you had already chosen a poet, so you may write about them. Those of you who had not, please choose the writers that were left out during the class, so that all poets are now discussed in the blog.

Activity n° 2
In a one-page paper (Times New Romans or Arial 11; 1.5 spaces) relate the form and content of the poem you have chosen, and add a conclusion in which you explain what you interpret the message of the poem is (remember that the message stems from the combination of form and content). Hand in your assignment on May 30th. Once I give you back the paper with the feedback, you'll write a clean second version, which you'll share with your classmates. For the colloquy, you are not supposed to repeat what you read in your classmates' papers, but to use those ideas as departing points to develop your own analysis.
In this way, you'll all contribute to each other's learning and understanding poetry.

Cooperative reading: Invisible Man

Invisible Man is Ralph Ellison's masterpiece. The first chapter was originally published as a short story; and if you rhink how it works with unity of effect, it certainly can be read as such (though of course, it is later developed in the rest of the novel).
What you'll find below are the questions which you prepared in class, plus a few I have added, to help you go over "Battle Royal" again. These questions are meant for you to study for the second mid-term test; it is not necessary that you answer and turn them in now.

1. What search was the narrator involved twenty years earlier?
2. What answer has he found? How can you explain it?
3. Why is the narrator ashamed?
4. in the 2nd paragraph, he says "our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days." What does he mean? Which "war" does he refer to? Why has he been a traiytor? Mention examples from the chapter in which we see him as a "traitor."
5. What was the gist fo the speech he delivered on his graduation day?
6. What was the battle royal? How is it relevant to the story's themes?
7. What is the white audience's attitude towards what happens in the ring?
8. What does the battle roal symbolize, in relation to the fighters' attitudes towards each other, and to the attitudes of the audience towards them?
9. Why is it so important for the narrator to deliver his speech?
10. What is meant by "social responsibility" and "social equality" in his speech? How do the white memebrs of the audience react to each of these ideas?
11. Explain the words that the M.C. tells the narrator as he hands him the prize briefcase.
12. What is the relevance of the garndfather's words on his deathbed? And of the dream the narrator has at the end of the chapter?

T. S. Eliot's Ariel Poems: a selection

T. S. Eliot was born in St Louis, MO; but decided to become a British subject. His poetry, drama, criticism and poetics are informed by the love of tradition, in which he found the roots of humanity and the solution to the devastation of the modern world. (This devastation is clearly seen in The Waste Land, especially in the last section: the image of the falling towers, for example, is particularly significant to readers who witnessed WWI, but it also speaks to 21st-century readers who recall contemporary wars or terrorist attacks).

When Eliot speaks of tradition, he refers to literary tradition, but also to the arts in general, to languages, religions, history... All these elements can be found in his poetry. He creates a new work of art with materials derived from a pre-existing tradition, which is resignified from the perspective of the modern world. This is clearly seen in his Ariel Poems, from which we have selected the first two.

(Benozzo Gozzoli's "Journey of the Magi", 15th century)


In class we read and analyzed "Journey of the Magi", in which one of the Three Wise Men recalls the hardships of the journey to find the baby Jesus. Both the popular story's and the biblical account's details are the point of departure for a text which is, in fact, a reflecion on the disappointment of modern man. If you click on the link under "Watch, listen, read and enjoy", you'll be able to listen to Eliot himself reading his poem. It's worth it!

In "A Song for Simeon" we hear another biblical character speak: Simeon was an old man who had been promised that he would not die until he saw the savior. So, when he witnessed Jesus' presentation at the temple, and after telling Mary that a sword would pierce her heart (a direct reference to the crucifixion), he let God know that now he could die, after all, since he had seen Salvation. (Just as the Magi, he had an epiphany, and was able to realize that the baby Jesus was the Saviour). Eliot, once more, recreates the hopeful account of the Bible and transforms it into a disillusioned discourse, the words of an old man who sees not salvation, but a painful future for his descendants. The peace that he asks God is not the biblical Peace, but the peace of death, where he wishes to find forgetfulness (in a way, the last line of "Journey of the Magi", which goes "I should be glad of another death", has an echo in Simeon's poem). And just like in the previous poem, here Simeon, who sees the baby Jesus, has visions of the future (the scourges, lamentations, the time of sorrow...). The "birth season of decease" recalls the similar paradox in "Journey of the Magi". Both speakers are old, tired, disillusioned, and even if their promises have been fulfilled, the results are not what they expected.

(An Armenian icon depicting the meeting of Simeon and the Holy Family in the temple)


That is why we may say these two poems can be read as companions: we may compare the poetic personae, the setting, the allusions, the tone, and several other elements. In both poems, you may see the exotic, Oriental presence (the girls bringing sherbet, or the hyacinths), the desacaralized biblical allusions, which are given a new meaning that speaks of the modern world and its disillusioned inhabitants, and the "small biography" of each poetic persona who speaks about his past, present and future.


Activity:
Write a 1-page essay in which you analyze one of the following topics on BOTH "Journey of the Magi" and "A Song for Simeon":

a. Eliot's use of biblical allusions.

b. The poems' re-writing of biblical stories from a modern perspective.

c. The tone of the poems.

d. The 2 poetic personae's "small biographies" in their dramatic monologues.

Due next Wednesday, May 23rd