ENG 543:
Topics for Paper 2
Due Thursday, March
9, your first essay should be 1500 words +/- 10% (from 1,350 to 1,650
words)
and adhere to the formatting guidelines that can be linked to here:
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/papertemplate.html
Please note that
your essays represent opportunities for you to explore your own ideas,
so
you should do your best to avoid repeating specific points that have
come up during our class-discussions.
Option A: Discuss the portrayal of
emotions in any TWO of the works that we've read since Murphy. What sorts of things do
we
learn from the characters' (or character-narrators') expressions of
emotion,
and how does their emotional life relate to other aspects of their
identity?
In what ways does the portrayal of emotions in each text relate to
other
themes being developed in the work?
Option B: Discuss the portrayal of
sex or sexuality in any TWO of the works that we've read since Murphy, comparing and
contrasting
the functions of sex/sexuality in the two texts. How do the authors use
sex/sexuality
to develop their themes, provide insights into their characters, and
explore
gender differences? How does the portrayal of sex in each text relate
to
other themes being developed in the work?
Option C: Discuss
the treatment of time/temporality in any TWO of the works that we've
read
since Murphy. If you
choose
this assignment, you might want to draw on the categories we discussed
in
class: order (the order in which events are presented versus the order
in
which they can be assumed to have occurred), duration (the relative
speed
with which events are narrated), and frequency (how many times an event
is
narrated versus how many times it can be assumed to have occurred). You
may
also want to consider other aspects of time and temporality, such as
the
overall time-span covered by the text, or how time itself figures as a
theme
and not just a technique in the two texts you are discussing. More
generally,
how do the
authors use time/temporality to develop their major ideas and provide
insight
into their characters?