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1138 Chapter 29 Writing About Literature
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. Give your name, your instructor's name, the course number, and the date at
the top left-hand corner of your first page, starting one inch from the
• On all pages, insert a header—your last name and the page number—in
the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top.
• Remember to give your paper a title that reflects your thesis.
• Leave an inch or two of margin on all four sides of each page.
• If you include a works-cited section, begin it on a new page.
Double-space your text, including quotations and notes. Don't forget to
double-space the works-cited page also.
• Italicize the titles of longer works-books, full-length plays, periodicals,
and book-length poems such as The Odyssey. The titles of shorter works
poems, articles, or short stories--should appear in quotation marks.
What's left to do but hand in your paper? By now, you may be glad to see
it go. But a good paper is not only worth submitting; it is also worth keeping. If
you return to it after a while, you may find to your surprise that it will preserve
and even renew what you have learned.
Topics for Writing About Fiction
Topics for Brief Papers (250-500 Words)
1. Explicate the opening paragraph or first few lines of a story. Show how
the opening prepares the reader for what will follow. In an essay of this length, you
will need to limit your discussion to the most important elements of the passage
you explicate; there won't be room to deal with everything. Or, as thoroughly as
the word count allows, explicate the final paragraph of a story. What does the
ending imply about the fates of the story's characters, and about the story's take
on its central theme?
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2. Select a story that features a first-person narrator. Write a concise yet thorough
analysis of how that character's point of view colors the story.
3. Consider a short story in which the central character has to make a decision or
must take some decisive step that will alter the rest of his or her life. Faulkner's
"Barn Burning" is one such story; another is Updike's "A & P." As concisely
and as thoroughly as you can, explain the nature of the character's decision, the
reasons for it, and its probable consequences (as suggested by what the author
tells us).
4. Choose two stories that might be interesting to compare and contrast. Write
a brief defense of your choice. How might these two stories illuminate each
other?
5. Choose a key passage from a story you admire. As closely as the word count allows,
explicate that passage and explain why it strikes you as an important moment in
pt the story. Concentrate on the aspects of the passage that seem most essential.
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Topics for Writing About Poetry 1139
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Topics for More Extended Papers (600–1,000 Words)
analysis of a short story, focusing on a single element, such as point of
theme, symbolism, character, or the author's voice (tone, style, irony).
sonality trait. Make character the focus of your essay.
Compare and contrast two stories with protagonists who share an important per-
thorough explication of a short passage (preferably not more than four
sentences) in a story you admire. Pick a crucial moment in the plot, or a passage
that reveals the story's theme. You might look to the paper "By Lantern Light"
(page 1115) as a model.
analysis of a story in which the protagonist experiences an epiphany or
revelation of some sort. Describe the nature of this change of heart. How is the
reader prepared for it? What are its repercussions in the character's life? Some
story
choices
Barn Burning," or
5. Imagine a reluctant reader, one who would rather play video games than crack a
book. Which story in this book would you recommend to him or her? Write an
essay to that imagined reader, describing the story's merits.
Topics for Long Papers (1,500 Words or More)
1. Write an analysis of a longer work of fiction. Concentrate on a single element of
the story, quoting as necessary to make your point.
2. Read three or four short stories by an author whose work you admire. Concentrating
on a single element treated similarly in all of the stories, write an analysis of the
author's work as exemplified by your chosen stories.
3. Choose two stories that treat a similar theme. Compare and contrast the stance
each story takes toward that theme, marshalling quotations and specifics as neces-
sary to back up your argument.
4. Browse through newspapers and magazines for a story with the elements of good
fiction. Now rewrite the story as fiction. Then write a one-page accompanying
essay explaining the challenges of the task. What did it teach you about the rela-
tive natures of journalism and fiction?
inson
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Topics for Writing About Poetry
Topics for Brief Papers (250-500 Words)
1. Write a concise explication of a short poem of your choice. Concentrate on those
facets of the poem that you think most need explaining. (For a sample explica-
tion, see page 1119.)
2. Write an analysis of a short poem, focusing on how a single key element shapes its
nt allows,
moment in
ential.
meaning. (A sample analysis appears on page 1122.) Some possible topics are:
Tone in Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Recuerdo"
Imagery in Wallace Stevens's "The Emperor of Ice-Cream"
• Kinds of irony in Thomas Hardy's "The Workbox"
1140 Chapter 29 - Writing About Literature
Hopkins's
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Write an
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• Theme in W. H. Auden's “Musée des Beaux Arts"
• Extended metaphor in Langston Hughes's “The Negro Speaks of Rivers
(Explain the one main comparison that the poem makes and show how the
whole poem makes it. Other poems that would lend themselves to a paper on
-24 extended metaphor include Emily Dickinson's
“Because I could not stop for
wil
Death," and Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers.")
(To locate any of these poems, see the Index of Authors and Titles.)
3. Select a poem in which the main speaker is a character who for any reason
interests you. You might consider, for instance, Robert Browning's "Soliloquy
of the Spanish Cloister,” T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," or
Rhina Espaillat's “Bilingual/Bilingüe." Then write a brief profile of this character
,
drawing only on what the poem tells you (or reveals). What is the character's age?
Situation in life? Attitude toward self? Attitude toward others? General personal.
ity? Do you find this character admirable?
4. Although both of these poems tell a story, what happens in the poem isn't
necessarily obvious: T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and Ed.
win Arlington Robinson's "Luke Havergal." Choose one of these poems, and in a
paragraph sum up what you think happens in it. Then in a second paragraph, ask
yourself: what, besides the element of story, did you consider in order to understand
the poem? rool onollo
Jonamos a no
Topics for More Extended Papers (600–1,000 Words)
1. Perform a line-by-line explication of a brief poem of your choice. Imagine that
Se your audience is unfamiliar with the poem and needs your assistance in interpret-
ing it.
2. Compare and contrast any two poems that treat a similar theme. Let your com-
parison bring you to an evaluation of the poems. Which is the stronger, more
satisfying one?
3. Write a comparison-contrast essay on any two or more poems by a single poet.
9 Look for two poems that share a characteristic thematic concern. Here are some
possible topics:
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• Mortality in the work of John Keats
• Nature in the poems of William Wordsworth
• How Emily Dickinson's lyric poems resemble hymns
• E. E. Cummings's approach to the free-verse line voliqot
• Gerard Manley Hopkins's sonic effects
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Topics for Long Papers (1,500 Words or More)
1. Review an entire poetry collection by a poet featured in this book. You will need
to communicate to your reader a sense of the work's style and thematic preoccupa-
tions. Finally, make a value judgment about the work's quality.
2. Read five or six poems by a single author. Start with a poet featured in this book, and
then find additional poems at the library or on the Internet. Write an analysis of a
single element of that poet's work--for example, theme, imagery, diction, or form.
3. Write a line-by-line explication of a poem rich in matters to explain or of a
longer poem that offers ample difficulty. While relatively short, Gerard Manley
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1142 Chapter 29 - Writing About Literature
30
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Oedipus to Teiresias, speech beginning “Wealth, sovereignty and skill” (Oedipus
Nora to Mrs. Linde, speech beginning “Yes, someday, maybe, in many years
when I am not as pretty as I am now..." (A Doll's House, page 869).
2. Analyze the complexities and contradictions to be found in a well-rounded
character from a play of your choice. Some good subjects might be Othello, Nora
Helmer (in A Doll's House), or Tom Wingfield (in The Glass Menagerie).
3. Take just a single line or sentence from a play, one that stands out for some reason as
greatly important. Perhaps it states a theme, reveals a character, or serves as a crisis
on (or turning point). Write an essay demonstrating its importance-how it functions,
why it is necessary. Some possible lines include:
dlago to Roderigo: “I am not what I am" (Othello, 1.1.67).
• Amanda to Tom: "You live in a dream; you manufacture illusions!" (The Glass
bre
Menagerie, Scene vii).
4. Write an analysis essay in which you single out an element of a play for
examination—character, plot, setting, theme, dramatic irony, tone, language,
symbolism, conventions, or any other element. Try to relate this element to the
play as a whole. Sample topics: "The Function of Teiresias in Oedipus the King,"
"Imagery of Poison in Othello," "Williams's Use of Magic-Lantern Slides in
The Glass Menagerie."
5. How would you stage an updated production of a play by Shakespeare, Sophocles,
or Ibsen, transplanting it to our time? Choose a play, and describe the challenges
and difficulties of this endeavor. How would you overcome them-or, if they
cannot be overcome, why not?
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Topics for Long Papers (1,500 Words or More)
1. Choose a play you have read and admire from this book, and read a second play
by the same author. Compare and contrast the two plays with attention to a single
element-a theme they have in common, or a particular kind of imagery, for
example.
BROW
2. Read Othello and view a movie version of the play. You might choose Oliver
Parker's 1995 take on the play with Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh,
or even O (2001), an updated version that takes a prep school as its setting and
a basketball star as its protagonist. Review the movie. What does it manage to
convey of the original? What gets lost in the translation?
3. Choosing any of the works in “Plays for further Reading" or taking some other
modern or contemporary play your instructor suggests, report any difficulties you
encountered in reading and responding to it. Explicate any troublesome passages
for the benefit of other readers.
4. Attend a play and write an in-depth review, taking into account many elements
of the drama: acting, direction, staging, costumes, lighting, and if the work is
relatively new and not a classic-the play itself.
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Topics for Writing About Drama 1141
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Browning's "Soliloquy
fJ. Alfred Prufrock," or
profile of this character,
at is the character's age?
hers? General personal-
.
Kay Ryan
Hopkins's "The Windhover" is a poem that will take a good bit of time to
explicate. Even a short, apparently simple poem such as Robert Frost's "Stop-
ping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" can provide more than enough material to
analysis of a certain theme (or other element) that you find in the work
of two or more poets. It is probable that in your conclusion you will want to set
some evaluation. Here are some sample topics to consider:
the poets' works side by side, comparing or contrasting them, and perhaps making
• Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Dudley Randall as Prophets of
What It Is to Be a Woman: The Special Knowledge of Sylvia Plath, Anne
Sexton, and Adrienne Rich
• The Complex Relations Between Fathers and Children in the Poetry of Robert
Hayden, Rhina Espaillat, and Theodore Roethke
Making Up New Words for New Meanings: Neologisms in Lewis Carroll and
to nomaisto lang na
Topics for Writing About Drama
Topics for Brief Papers (250-500 words)
1. Analyze a key character from any of the plays in this book. Two choices might
be Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Torvald Helmer in A Doll's House
.
What motivates that character? Point to specific moments in the play to make
2. When the curtain comes down on the conclusion of some plays, the audi-
ence is left to decide exactly what finally happened. In a short informal essay,
state your interpretation of the conclusion of El Santo Americano or The Glass
Menagerie. Don't just give a plot summary: tell what you think the conclusion
means. diy lo dico in mod
3. Sum up the main suggestions you find in one of these meaningful objects (or
actions): the handkerchief in Othello; the Christmas tree in A Doll's House
(or Nora's doing a wild tarantella); Laura's collection of figurines in The Glass
wala
Menagerie.
4. Attend a play and write a review. In an assignment this brief, you will need to
ens in the poem isn't
fred Prufrock" and Ed-
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second paragraph, ask
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concentrate your remarks on either the performance or the script itself. Be sure to
back up your opinions with specific observations. We Youn
Topics for More Extended Papers (600-1,000 Words) rampas
1. From a play you have enjoyed, choose a passage that strikes you
as difficult, worth
ok. You will need
ematic preoccupa-
in this book, and
e an analysis of a
iction, or form.
explain or of a
Gerard Manley
reading closely. Try to pick a passage not longer than about 20 lines. Explicate it-
the play relates to the whole. For instance, any of the following passages might be
considered memorable (and essential to their plays):
5.2.1-22).