Some Possible Topics for the Final Paper

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Strickland/English 122 4/3/89

Some possible topics for the final paper

(1) Analyze the dramatic and thematic effects of Richard's soliloquies in ®MDUL¯Richard®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯III®MDNM¯,®MDBO¯ Edmund's soliloquies in ®MDUL¯King®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Lear®MDNM¯, ®MDBO¯and Hamlet's soliloquies, in ®MDUL¯Hamlet®MDNM¯.®MDBO¯ Each of these characters speaks in soliloquy several times during the play. How do the soliloquies function dramatically? How do they position the speaker in relation to the audience? How do the soliloquies (and/or the play as a whole) work to "produce" a particular viewing subject? (See Catherine Belsey, ®MDUL¯Critical®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Practice®MDNM¯, ®MDBO¯on reserve-- esp. ch. 2; and/or Kaja Silverman, ®MDUL¯The®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Subject®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯of®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Semiotics®MDNM¯,®MDBO¯ on reserve--esp. ch. 5).

(2) The classical "New Comedy" plot often pits young lovers against their elders. A boy of lower social status wins the love of a girl from a prominent family. Their love is opposed by some "blocking agent" from the older generation-- perhaps the parents already have someone in mind for the girl. Often they are aided by some sympathetic older servant or other older person. Finally, the marriage is achieved, and the boy--a symbolic outsider-- is accepted into the mainstream of society. The comedies (and some of the tragedies) of Shakespeare show the influence of New Comedy, though the plays usually do not follow this typical plot pattern exactly. Analyze the function of New Comedy conventions in ®MDUL¯Taming®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯of®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯the®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Shrew®MDNM¯, ®MDUL¯Merchant®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯of®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Venice®MDNM¯, ®MDUL¯Midsummer®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Night®MDNM¯'s ®MDUL¯Dream®MDNM¯, ®MDUL¯Romeo®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯and®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Juliet®MDNM¯ ®MDBO¯an®MDBO¯d/or ®MDUL¯Hamlet®MDNM¯. ®MDBO¯ How does Shakespeare recast the conventions in any or all of these plays? What thematic and dramatic effects do his changes produce?

(3) Consider and compare the two major master-servant relationships in ®MDUL¯Taming®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯of®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯the®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Shrew®MDNM¯: ®MDBO¯Tranio and Lucentio and Grumio and Petruchio. How does each servant relate to his particular master. Both Grumio and Tranio play important parts in their masters' courtship/ taming--how do their roles differ in importance and function? What does Shakespeare's portrayal of master-servant relationships reveal about the systems of deference and servitude in the Renaissance? (See Lawrence Stone, ®MDUL¯The®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Crisis®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯of®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯the®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Aristocracy®MDNM¯, ®MDBO¯on reserve, esp. pp. 30-40).

(4) Produce a critique of the introduction of any of the plays we have read in the Bevington edition of Shakespeare's plays. Examine the critical, political, and philosophical assumptions upon which the introduction is grounded. Is the introduction an adequate introduction to the play? What kind of reader does it address? (5) Discuss the function(s) of surrogate dramatists in Shakespeare's plays. What issues are raised by their activities? How do they contribute to the metadramatic consideration of the nature of drama? Characters who could be considered include Petruchio and Lucentio in ®MDUL¯Shrew®MDNM¯, ®MDBO¯Oberon and Theseus in ®MDUL¯Midsummer®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Night®MDNM¯'s ®MDUL¯Dream®MDNM¯, ®MDBO¯Claudius, Polonius and Hamlet in ®MDUL¯Hamlet®MDNM¯, ®MDNM¯®MDBO¯Edmund and Edgar in ®MDUL¯King®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Lear®MDNM¯, ®MDBO¯a®MDBO¯nd Portia in ®MDUL¯The®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Merchant®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯of®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Venice®MDNM¯.

®MDBO¯(6) The concepts of honor and nobility are central to the themes of ®MDUL¯Henry®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯IV®MDNM¯, ®MDUL¯Part®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯1®MDNM¯, ®MDUL¯Merchant®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯of®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Venice®MDNM¯,®MDBO¯ and ®MDUL¯Titus®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Andronicus®MDNM¯. ®MDBO¯Produce a structuralist, poststructuralist or psychoanalytic critique of these concepts in any of these plays.

(7) Discuss the thematic and dramatic relationship between the Henry IV episodes, the Falstaff episodes, and the Hotspur episodes of ®MDUL¯Henry®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯IV®MDNM¯, ®MDUL¯Part®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯1®MDNM¯. ®MDBO¯ You can limit your focus to one of the major themes.

(8) In 1681 Nahum Tate produced a revised version of Shakespeare's King Lear in which the following details are changed: Lear lives and is restored to his throne; Cordelia lives and marries Edgar, and the Fool's part is cut from the play. Until 1838, this version of Shakespeare's play was generally favored over the original (see Bevington, p. 1660). Which version do you think is better? Why? What are some of the critical and theoretical issues raised by the differences between the Tate version and the original version of the play?

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®PL60¯ Strickland English 122 Feb. 4, 1991

Possible Topics for the first paper:

(11) In the past fifty years or so, most university and high school courses in English literature have been based on the theoretical assumptions of New Criticism. Recently, these theoretical assumptions have been challenged by competing theories, including Structuralism, Poststructuralism, and various versions of Marxism and Feminism. Using specific examples from your previous experience of literature (both in academic study and general reading/viewing) and from the accounts of New Criticism and other theories of literature in the Eagleton text and in the theoretical texts on the reserve list, present your current position on literary theory. Your position should be developed with rigorous attention to the kinds of critiques which it may provoke from other theoretical positions. Further, you should be as self-conscious as possible about the effects and consequences of your own (possibly unquestioned) theoretical assumptions in working out your position. Do a symptomatic reading of your own text: how is your theory limited by its own basic assumptions? What are some of the possible socio-cultural factors (class, race, or gender status, political orientation or religious backgroud, etc.) which may condition or determine the reasons why you find this theory congenial? These last issues do not need to be explicitly presented in the text, but they should be considered as part of the process of building a strong argument for a particular position.

(12) In the conclusion to ®MDUL¯Literary®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Theory®MDNM¯, Terry Eagleton argues for the death of literature and for its replacement by a study of textuality in culture:

®LM5¯If literary theory presses its own implications too far, then it has argued itself out of existence. . . . This, I would suggest, is the best possible thing for it to do. The final logical move in a process which began by recognizing that literature is an illusion is to recognize that literary theory is an illusion too. . . . It is an illusion first in the sense that literary theory, as I hope to have shown, is really no more than a branch of social ideologies, utterly without any unity or identity which would adequately distinguish it from philosophy, linguistics, psychology, cultural and sociological thought; and secondly in the sense that the one hope it has of distinguishing itself-- clinging to an object named literature--is misplaced. My own view is that it is most uselful to see 'literature' as a name which people give from time to time for different reasons to

certain kinds of writing within a whole field of what Michel Foucault has called `discursive practices,' and that if anything is to be an object of study it is this whole field of practices rather than just those sometimes rather obscurely labelled `literature.' (Eagleton, 204-5) ®LM0¯ In an essay, consider some of the implications of this position. Would you favor such a change? What kinds of texts do you think should be studied in such a course? Why? How would such a change relate to your overall academic project and goals? How does literature as it is currently defined and taught relate to your overall academic project and goals? Etc.

(13) Develop an extended analysis/critique of any of the prominent literary theories described in Eagleton's book. You can begin with Eagleton's representation of a particular theory and then extend that representation by comparing and contrasting it with particular specific examples from your own experience and/or by doing a critique of one of the primary theoretical texts from his bibliography (Eagleton, 223-31).

(14) According to the Formalist theorist Roman Jakobson, poetry is a kind of writing which represents "organized violence committed on ordinary speech." According to the structuralist Yury Lotman "information is beauty," and poetic texts pack more information per semantic unit than ordinary texts. According to Northrop Frye, poetry is a free-standing discourse--"literature [exists] in its own universe, no longer a commentary on life or reality, but containing life and reality in a system of verbal relationships." According to the Yale deconstructionist Paul deMan the fundamental characteristic of poetry (indeed, of all uses of language) is irony--the fact that we can never say what we mean. According to the post-Althusserian Marxist Pierre Macherey, "literariness is what is perceived as such." In an essay consider the applicability or the inadequacy of any of these theories to literature in general or to a particular piece of literature that interests you.