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27. Tuesday, April 30: How does Stoppard mock the typical British murder mystery in The Real Inspector Hound? How does he mock drama, or theater, more generally?
26. Tuesday, April 28: Two parts: a) In Lawrence's "Odor 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) Respond to "To Room 119" however you like.
25. Thursday, April 23: T. S. Eliot reportedly once said The Waste Land is not so much "an important bit of social criticism [as it is] the relief of a personal and wholly insignificant grouse against life; it is just a piece of rhythmical grumbling." If we believe this assertion, what is it specifically about life that Eliot finds to grouse and grumble against? On the other hand, how might the poem be seen as important social criticism?
24. Tuesday, April 21: How is Winnie heroic in the absurd world of Beckett's Happy Days?
23. Thursday, April 16: Two parts: a) discuss the theme of entrapment in "Eveline" and "The Boarding House"; b) respond to "Lestrygonians."
22. Tuesday, April 14: Open assignment on our readings from Virginia Woolf.
21. Thursday, April 9: Open assignment. Respond to Yeats's poetry however you like--so long as you make specific references to at least three poems.
20. Tuesday, April 7: Explore the imagery and symbolism of lightness and darkness in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. How is the "darkness" particularly "modern"?
19. Thursday, April 2: What does Shaw say in Mrs. Warren's Profession about "the modern woman"?
18. Tuesday, March 31: Wilde's rollicking, farcical The Importance of Being Earnest has been described as a "garden of sheer delight, a modern Eden where winter never enters." What serious social criticism does Wilde offer in this so-light-hearted play?
17. Thursday, March 19: Open assignment: anything analytical on Hard Times.
16. Tuesday, March 17: So long as you concentrate mainly on the "Book III: Garnering": open assignment.
15. Thursday, March 12: Melodrama involves characters too "good" to be true and characters "evil" beyond the point of sympathy or compassion. Which characters in the second third of Hard Times fit these melodramatic extremes of good and evil? Discuss at least three characters, preferably four.
14. Tuesday, March 10: What do you like and dislike about the first 100 pages of Hard Times--be specific.
13. Tuesday, March 3: Open assignment on Matthew Arnold.
12. Thursday, February 26: Characterize as fully as you can the personality of the speakers of any two of Browning's poems. Point to specific passages that lead you to discover what kinds of people these speakers are.
11. Tuesday, February 24: Discuss either a) the theme of loss, or b) Tennyson's portraits of women in any of Tennyson's poems.
10. Thursday, February 19: Compare John Stuart Mill's and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's arguments against the oppression of women. Do the two writers share any of the same ideas? Aside from the difference in genre (essay vs. narrative poem) how are their arguments different from one another?
9. Tuesday, February 17: A couple of possibilities: 1) How do Carlyle's "yea" and "nay" still apply today? 2) How is Carlyle recognizably "Victorian"? How does he differ from the Romantics?
8. Thursday, February 12: Explore the development of a second theme in Frankenstein from the list on the Mary Shelley handout: restrict your discussion primarily to the latter half of the novel.
7. Tuesday, February 10: Explore the development in Frankenstein of any one of the themes listed on the Mary Shelley handout.
6. Thursday, February 5: Open assignment: respond to anything in Shelley however you like. Only if you're really stuck: you might consider which of the other Romantics Shelley seems to have the most in common--explain your choice in full.
5. Tuesday, February 3: How is Keats's poetry different from the poetry we've read thus far? Keats is our first taste of the "Second generation Romantics"—how is he similar to earlier Romantics? How is Keats "Romantic"?
4. Thursday, January 29: Respond to Coleridge's poetry in any way you want. If you're stuck, you might consider his similarities and differences vis-a-vis Wordsworth, or you could examine Coleridge's specific treatment of nature and compare it to Wordsworth's.
3. Tuesday, January 27: Discuss one or both: a) the importance of nature in Wordsworth's poetry; b) Wordsworth's treatment of "common" subjects.
2. Thursday, January 22: Is Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman completely dated? Do some of her ideas still apply to women today? Making specific reference to the text, discuss the relevance of her argument to our contemporary society.
1. Tuesday, January 20: Compare and contrast Blake's conception of "innocence" and "experience." Give particular attention to the paired poems: the two "Introductions," "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," and the two "Chimney Sweepers."