guidelines for the final paper

The final essay, which is due on 12/10, should be:
* 5-6 pages in length (that is, no shorter than 5 full pages and no longer than 6, not counting the title page and Works Cited page;
* a clear, persuasive argument with a focused, specific thesis statement;
* well-supported by textual evidence (which means direct quotation, not just paraphrase and summary);
* organized, with coherent, unified paragraphs and clear topic sentences;
* grammatically, mechanically, and stylistically fluent.

And, of course, it must answer one of the assignment questions. If it does not address a question from the list, it earns an F, no matter how stellar it is!

A few questions for you to ask yourself about your paper (the answer to all of these questions should be "yes!"):

* Is it possible that a reasonable reader could disagree with my thesis statement? (If not--if no one would disagree--it is not really an argument.)

* Is my thesis statement consistent across the paper? (Often, it evolves as you're writing, which is actually a good thing; however, it does mean that you need to go back and revise the introduction to reflect the more-developed thesis.)

* Have I analyzed every quote that I include? (No quote should stand alone; each one needs to be analyzed, to tell your reader why and how that quote supports or proves your thesis statement.)

Final Paper topics

Three more options (and this is likely to be all of them):

5. Describe the depiction of marriage in Pride and Prejudice. How does Austen view marriage? Consider Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins and Charlotte, the Lucases, and the Gardiners , and make an argument about how Austen describes married life.

6. Describe the narrative style of The Remains of the Day. How does Ishiguro reveal plot points without his narrator understanding them? What is the effect of that technique?

7. In A Christmas Carol, what is Dickens’s argument about the plight of the poor? Why does he use Christmas as the occasion for this argument?

final paper questions, part 1

Here are the first few questions that you may choose from for the final paper (which will be 5-6 pages).

1. Compare the representations of masculinity in "Regeneration" and "The Remains of the Day."

2. Compare the role of female friendship in "Regeneration" and "Pride and Prejudice."

3. Discuss the role of Nazism and the historical context of Nazi sympathizers in England, in light of "The Remains of the Day." This question requires some historical research (I will suggest a couple of sources in class; do not resort to Wikipedia, please.)

4. Consider the following poems: Sassoon ("The Kiss"), Owen ("Anthem for Doomed Youth"), and Brooke ("The Soldier"). How do these poems differ in their representations of war, and how do they convey those differing images?

a couple of video clips I'd like you to view

I wanted to compare these representations of Sherlock Holmes:

Here's Jeremy Brett as Holmes, in the final scene of the BBC episode "The Six Napoleons."
(Try to ignore the fact that the "Black Pearl of the Borgias" is clearly a marble.)

And this is Jeremy Brett as Holmes in "The Empty House" (the episode in which Holmes returns and Watson finds out that he did not, in fact, die with Moriarty). Start watching at about 4:50--the end of the clip is the beginning of Holmes's revelations about how he survived, which are not that interesting, but the interchange between Watson and Holmes after Holmes's reappearance is in many ways characteristic of the way Holmes treats Watson.

In a less fond moment--Holmes often abuses Watson, telling him how unintelligent he is. This may be the worst of those scenes. Poor Watson. This clip also alludes to their conflict over Holmes's cocaine habit, something the BBC played up in order to reform Holmes in the episode "The Devil's Foot" (a change from the Conan Doyle stories based on the fact that the series had a large youth audience). You can ignore the last little bit--I don't really understand why YouTube aficionados are so fond of setting random bits of television to irrelevant music.

This is Basil Rathbone as Holmes--possibly wittier? (In this clip, you get very little, luckily, of the Worst Watson Ever.)


And finally, the most recent: this is Robert Downey, Jr., as Holmes, demonstrating the analytical approach that Holmes uses. This scene is a little gross (at least if you hate boxing), but characteristic of the direction of this film (it's Guy Richie). For context, at the beginning of this clip, Holmes is getting his ass kicked. Holmes is, indeed, described as a boxer in the Conan Doyle stories.


And, last of all: a short clip from the opening of the BBC miniseries of "Pride and Prejudice," which introduces the Bennetts. Skip to about 2:30 if you want to miss the credits.

link to Agatha Christie short story

Please read "The Tuesday Night Club"--the first story in this collection, which is available in its entirety from this preview link.

formatting note (FYI)

Names of books; publications (newspapers, magazines); TV series; full-length plays; and book-length collections of prose, poetry, or drama all should be italicized or underlined. Titles of short stories, individual poems, articles, episodes of TV shows, songs, and one-act plays should be put in quotation marks.

Link to Sherlock Holmes

Here's the link to the PDF of "The Six Napoleons." Please print this and bring to class; I'd like us to have the same pagination.

adjustments to syllabus

The syllabus with adjustments is published on the right sidebar. Check it out. Highlights: we will discuss film adaptation and the upcoming paper on Monday, 10/18. Bring any questions you have about the paper. We will end with an introduction to Joseph Conrad and move on to The Secret Agent on Wednesday.

I have moved the discussion of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie to 10/27 (they are short, and should be easy reads as you're finishing your papers). The war poems (Owen and Sassoon) will be discussed the week after Thanksgiving.

good timeline of British history

From the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/

Katherine Mansfield short story

Here is a link to the full text of "The Daughters of the Late Colonel."

interesting video

This video addresses some of the same issues we are discussing in class--in an interesting, engaging way. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g&feature=player_embedded

Paper 1 topics

This essay should be a concise, cogent literary analysis. You are not expected to use any sources aside from your class texts; if you do use them, they must be cited correctly and put to good use (not just plugged in to fill space or make your paper look more impressive). You may choose from the following paper topics. You may write on any topic, regardless of whether you have written a response paper about that text. We will be having a draft workshop on 10/25 in class; bring your completed rough draft on that day. Print it out and bring a hard copy—don’t just bring your laptop. Most of these questions are comparative questions, asking you to discuss two texts.

1. Compare the depiction of family life and the role of the family in The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. Is the family important? Why or why not?

2. Compare Rebecca West’s portrait of shell-shock in The Return of the Soldier with Pat Barker’s depiction of shell-shock in Regeneration. What do these two texts say about mental health and the definition of wellness? What do they share and what is different?

3. Discuss the role of male friendship in The Third Man. What does Greene suggest about the importance of male/male relationships?

4. Compare the representations of marriage in Rebecca and The Secret Agent. What do these writers say about marriage?

5. Compare the narrative voices of “Funeral Blues” and “This Be the Verse.” What are the differences between these two poems? How are they similar?

I might add a topic or two between now and the due date of the paper; if so, they will be posted on the course blog.

adjustment to syllabus

Instead of reading "The Beast in the Jungle," we will be viewing the rest of "The Importance of Being Earnest" on Wednesday, 9/22.

useful writing link

This page from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab has some helpful suggestions for writing a good thesis statement about literature.

And this link from Capital Community College includes helpful information about formatting and style concerns in a paper about literature (things like when to italicize versus when to use quotation marks, how to cite quotations correctly, etc.).

Welcome to English 212!

Check out, under the "Pages" section on the right sidebar, the list of texts for the course. Make sure you have the right editions! If you're ordering through Amazon, you can click the links. If not, note the ISBN and make sure you're getting the correct edition.

The syllabus is available in the right sidebar, too, with the calendar and course policies.

Check back here for more discussion questions, warnings about quizzes, and topics for your response papers!