ENG 561: Topics for Paper I
Due Monday, January 31, your first essay should be 900-1,100 words long
and adhere to the formatting guidelines that can be linked to here:
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/papertemplate.html
Option A: Use ideas discussed
in any of the secondary sources that we will have read by the due date
for the paper--namely, Rimmon-Kenan, Frow, McHale, Nelles, or
Duyfhuizen--to develop an interesting interpretation of narrative
framing in Wordsworth's The Ruined
Cottage, Diderot's Jacques
the Fatalist, Shelley's Frankenstein,
or Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
For this option, you should focus on just ONE of the secondary sources
in the above list, and just ONE of the literary works we've read thus
far. Then use two different scenes (in that work) where narrative
frames are involved to "test out" the validity or productiveness of the
critic's ideas. What features of the scenes do the critic's ideas
help you understand? By contrast, are there aspects of the scenes that
the critic's ideas do not help illuminate? Do the critic's ideas seem
to shed more light on one of the scenes than the other? If so, why?
Option B: Choose two works from the following: Wordsworth's The Ruined Cottage, Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist, Shelley's Frankenstein, Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Then compare and
contrast the functions and significance of narrative framing in these
two texts. For this option, given the space constraints you are working
under, it would be a good idea to focus your attention on just a couple
of scenes from each novel and use those scenes as the basis for your
comparison/contrast. Some brainstorming questions to consider: Do both
texts rely on the same sorts of markers or cues to indicate differences
among narrative levels, or do they use different kinds of markers? What
is the significance of shifts among levels in these texts? How does
narrative framing relate, in each case, to other aspects of the texts,
such as characterization, setting, or plot?
Option C: For this option,
compare and contrast either Shelley's Frankenstein
or Brontë's Wuthering Heights
with any film version of either of those novels. (In other words, you
should compare and contrast the print and film versions of just ONE of
these works, not both.) You are free to use any film version of either
work; but please do provide a full bibliographic citation of the
version you choose. The imdb website, at http://www.imdb.com,
is a good resource to use to find a relevant film version.
Alternatively, if you can find either either of these two narratives
told in comics or a graphic novel format, feel free to compare and
contrast the print and comics/graphic novel versions of ONE of these
works. In this case, OSU's own Cartoon Research Library might be a good
resource; check out http://cartoons.osu.edu/
In comparing and contrasting the two versions of the
work, you should focus on issues of narrative framing in particular.
Given the space constraints for your essay, it would be a good idea to
focus on just a couple of scenes, comparing and contrasting how
narrative framing works in print versus the other medium you examine.
In the two media you discuss, what sorts of cues are used to mark a
particular narrative level in the scenes in question? What cues are
used to mark shifts among levels? Are there scenes in which the print
version of the work uses fewer or more narrative frames than in the
other version? If so, does the other version try to "compensate" for
this difference? How?