ENG 564.04:
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: Trace a
minor character
(for example, Lenehan, Martin Cunningham, Denis Breen) through at least
two episodes
of Ulysses. What are
the functions
of the character across those different episodes. How do the functions
change
from episode to episode, or do the functions of the character remain
constant?
How does the text's ongoing concern with this character relate to the
larger
themes of the novel?
Option B: Read the
full version of an episode from Homer's Odyssey with which Joyce
places
one of the chapters of Ulysses
into dialogue (for example, the episode in Homer that concerns Proteus,
Scylla
and Charybdis, the Cyclops, Nausicaa, etc). Then explore the extent to
which
Joyce transformed the episode for his own purposes. What aspects of the
Homeric
episode remain constant in both The Odyssey and Ulysses? What aspects does
Joyce
modify, and how? How does this pattern of intertextual reference--a
pattern
involving both constancy and change--relate to Joyce's larger concerns
in
the novel? In other words, how does Joyce both rely on and actively
transform
Homer's text, and for what strategic purposes?
Option C: Identify
a place, person,
historical circumstance, recurrent phrase or textual reference, song
title,
or some other small detail in Ulysses
that you find noteworthy
or suggestive. Then, in the ETC Reading Room on the third floor of the
library,
consult Gifford's Ulysses
Annotated
(call number PR6019.O9 U418 G42) to get more information
about that detail. If necessary, follow up on Gifford's comments by
doing
some more research on the detail, documenting in your list of Works
Cited all the sources you go on to
consult (whether they are print or electronic sources). Discuss the
significance
and function of the detail in the overall context of Ulysses. How does the
detail
relate to Joyce's larger themes in the novel? How does he use it to
suggest
something about the characters, their beliefs, values, memories, etc.?
What
are the implications of Joyce's use of this detail in constructing his
novel?
In other words, in what sense does the detail allow Joyce to suggest
something
indirectly, and what is the function and significance of that
indirection?
Option D: In our
class discussions of Ulysses,
we have talked about Joyce's use of two basic concepts or principles:
(1)
parallax, or the need to factor in more than one viewpoint to avoid the
distortions
that can come from a single perspective; and (2) metempsychosis, or the
need
to take into account the way things inevitably change over time.
Focusing
on two scenes that we did not zoom in on during our class meetings,
discuss
how the scenes reflect or relate to these one or both of these concepts
or principles. (Note:
the two scenes you select can be from the same episode or from two
different episodes.)
In what ways are the ideas of parallax and/or metempsychosis important
for understanding
the scenes? And do those ideas play themselves out differently in the
two
scenes in question?