English 4500 critical responses, fall 2013

Note that critical response essays have a 250 word minimum and must be typed. Avoid plot summary or straightforward retelling of "what happens" in the work—see nugget 1.

Format your response according to MLA guidelines for margins, spacing, name, date, etc., headers, etc. as outlined on my "simple stuff" page. Works cited pages are unnecessary for critical responses. Even without works cited pages, do still follow the MLA conventions for documenting quotations as explained in QD1-4 on my quotes and documentation page.

2.13 Due Thursday, December 5: How satisfying is the closing chapter of Saturday, in terms of both plot and central themes? Explore this question, including at least three quotations.

3.1 Due at the final exam, Tuesday, December 12: Which four writers or works from our schedule of readings do you think are most essential to demonstrating the defining developments or characteristics of twentieth-century British literature? In separate paragraphs, explain why you think each writer or work should be essential reading in any 20th-Century British course.

1.1 Due Thursday, August 22: Analyze Hardy's pessimism in "On the Western Circuit" and any two of his poems in our Norton text. Compare and contrast: what similarities and what differences in attitude do you see in the three works? Include at least two quotations from the story and one from each poem in your response (total of four minimum), being careful to avoid plot summary (see nugget 1), and for the poems, following the MLA guidelines for citing poetry outlined in QD4 on my quotes and documentation page.

1.2 Due Tuesday, August 27: Choose one, do not address both:
a) Discuss Marlow's attitude in Heart of Darkness towards Kurtz, before he meets him and after, including at least four quotations to support your claims.

b) Consider this passage (from about four pages into the second chapter) as a potential thesis for Conrad's novella: "Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly."

1.3 Due Thursday, August 29: Open assignment: respond to whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in any three of the World War I poems, quoting each poem at least twice, following the guidelines for citing poetry outlined in QD4 on my quotes and documentation page.

1.4 Due Tuesday, September 3: Find and summarize an authoritative definition of modernism—use Galileo or MSC library print sources, not open-access web sources—and explain how any two of the readings in the "Modernist Manifestos" section in our Norton text illustrate or support or illuminate the definition of modernism you discovered. Include at least three quotations from the "manifestos" readings, and for this assignment only, include a works cited entry (see QD5) for the authoritative definition you tracked down.

1.5 Due Thursday, September 5: Examine either "September 1913" or "Easter, 1916" and any single other Yeats poem from pp. 2085-95 in thorough depth, attending especially to his poetic technique. What makes his poetry so technically brilliant? What specific poetic devices, elements, aspects of rhythm or meter, "sound effects," etc. does he use with consummate skill (if not genius)? And how do these various elements work to support the meaning of each poem? Include at least three quotations from each poem you discuss, following carefully the guidelines for citing poetry outlined in QD4 on my quotes and documentation page.

1.6 Due Tuesday, September 10: Open assignment on any two or three of the Yeats poems we're reading from pp. 2096-2110. Discuss whatever strikes you as interesting, significant, or intriguing in the poems, quoting each poem you address at least twice (see QD4).

1.7 Due Thursday, September 12: Choose one, do not address both:
a) What do you think is experimental in Joyce's presentation of Stephen's childhood in the first chapter of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? Think in terms of narrative technique: point of view, the lack of exposition, the presentation of scenes or images without transition, etc. Include at least three quotations to support your claims.

b) Discuss Stephen's character or personality in the first chapter of the novel: how is he like and unlike the other children depicted, how might he seem more likely to become an artist than his peers? Include at least three quotations to support your claims.

1.8 Due Tuesday, September 17: Discuss Stephen's evolving feelings about authority in our second installment of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, starting with his father, most immediately, but expanding into other realms as they occur to you. Include at least three quotations.

1.9 Due Thursday, September 19: Choose one, do not address both:
a) Comment on Stephen's views of Ireland, the Irish, and/or Irish politics in Chapter V of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, including at least three quotations in support of your observations.

b) Summarize Stephen's theories of art and beauty, and the role of the artist. Include at least three quotations for illustration.

1.10 Due Tuesday, September 24: Discuss different ways our first installment of The Waves is even more radically experimental than Portrait of the Artist? What do you think Woolf is trying to accomplish through the unusual narrative method? How does it differ from tradition, or "normal" storytelling? Explain, bringing in at least three quotations to illustrate your claims.

1.11 Due Thursday, September 26: Analyze, briefly, the continuing development of any two of the six primary characters in the middle third of The Waves. Include at least two quotations in your comments on each character.

1.12 Due Tuesday, October 1: Open assignment: respond in whatever analytical fashion you like to the concluding third of The Waves. Include at least three quotations in your discussion.

1.13 Due Tuesday, October 8: choose one, do not address both:
a) Construct an in-depth character analysis of J. Alfred Prufrock: describe his character or personality in as much detail as you can muster in no more than two pages, including at least four quotations to support your observations.

b) Open assignment on "The Hollow Men." Discuss whatever strikes you as interesting, significant, or intriguing in this poem. Include at least four quotations to illustrate your comments.

2.1 Due Tuesday, October 15: Two parts (do both): a) In Lawrence's "Odour of Chrysanthemums," why does Elizabeth Bates say she denied her husband "what he was"? Why does she say she had "refused him as himself"? b) Open assignment on "The Horse Dealer's Daughter": respond however you like so long as you avoid plot summary, including at least two quotations from this second story to illustrate your observations.

2.2 Due Thursday, October 17: Discuss Mansfield's portrayal of women in either or both stories, quoting either or both to substantiate your claims.

2.3 Due Tuesday, October 22: How does Beckett's Happy Days offer significant commentary on the human condition? What fundamental statement(s) about life does the play make? Include at least four quotations from the play in your discussion.

2.4 Due Thursday, October 24: Open assignment on any one of the Auden poems we're reading for Tuesday and any one of the Thomas poems. Avoid summary of the poetry, and include at least two quotations from each poem in your discussion.

2.5 Due Tuesday, October 29:Choose one, do not address both:
a) Consider whether you think "To Room Nineteen" is a feminist story. Explain, including at least three quotes from the story to substantiate your claims;

b) Open assignment on "The Moment before the Gun Went Off," including at least three quotes to support your observations.

2.6 Due Thursday, October 31: Open assignment on any one of the Philip Larkin poems and any one of the Thom Gunn poems we're reading. Include at least two quotations from each poem in your response.

2.7 Due Tuesday, November 5: Choose two particularly important speeches or exchanges of dialogue in Pinter's The Dumb Waiter and explain their thematic importance to the play as a whole.

2.8 Due Thursday, November 7: Choose one—do not address both:
a) Explore Stoppard's commentary on knowledge in the first reading from Arcadia. Discuss different aspects or facets of knowledge he brings to our attention, and include at least three quotations to support your observations.

b) Discuss Stoppard's use of two different time-frames in the first half of Arcadia: how are the two periods integral to any particular theme(s) of the play? Note that "theme" here means "a statement about life, society, the human condition, etc." Include at least three quotations to illustrate your claims.

2.9 Due Tuesday, November 12: Open assignment on the second half of Arcadia. Avoid plot summary, and include quotations. If you wish, you might continue exploring either of the topics for Act I.

2.10 Due Thursday, November 14: Open assignment on any two Heaney poems. Include at least two quotations from each poem you discuss.

2.11 Due Tuesday, November 19: We will consider this question in some depth throughout our examination of the novel, but focusing just on the first chapter, consider both sides of the question of whether McEwan's Saturday merits being considered as "literature," not merely well-written "popular entertainment." Devote at least one paragraph to each view, including quotations as appropriate.

2.12 Due Thursday, November 21: Open assignment. Respond to anything that strikes you as interesting or significant in the second chapter of Saturday. Avoid plot summary, and include at least three quotations.