Don't worry--you won't be committing you or your classmates to anything! But think for a moment all that you've encountered and thought about this semester in 427. Survey in your mind the depth and breadth of reading you've covered. And then consider: what sort of question would best allow you to demonstrate your learning in this class?
Propose an essay question for the 427 take-home final here. It should either (a) encourage close reading of texts from the course, (b) allow you to display interpretive and analytical skills that you have gained in your study of later C18 literature, (c) draw on the knowledge you have acquired in the course of the semester, or ideally, (d) some combination of (a), (b), and (c).
Deadline: Friday (5/1), 10am.
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Respond (or re-respond) to two blog posts for each week of class we've had. [Will not count toward your blog grade]. Keep in mind the breadth of information you've accumulated in the class so far, and use close reading to make interpretive claims when necessary. Feel free to build off of other people's comments.
In your own words, describe as best as possible sensibility, the sublime, and gothic. Then select the reading from the semester that you think best exemplifies the term. Comparing and contrasting the texts chosen for each one, how do these three 18th-C terms relate? How are they similar, different? Are texts that are gothic usually sublime or invoke sensibility?
Think about the birth of the novel, and how during the 18th century it was starting to become a formidable literary art from. Why do you think it took so long for this new type of literature to catch on. Why was it so rejected by a large part of the public?
Choose one overarching theme from the semester (the sublime, sensibility, what should be in novels) and trace it through three different texts, analyzing how different authors use the theme in their works. How do the authors differ in how they use the theme? How are they the same? What different effects come through the texts?
Consider the use of the 'other' in 18c literature whether it be categorized by ethnicity,class or gender. How does the 'other' serve as a foundation to criticizing or affirming the British identity in 18c works?
I think that doing a mini version of the first assignment would be good. You could possibly provide a few text choices to edit and work our way through. I think it would be interesting because it would show just how far we've come with reading texts from the late 18th cenury since the beginning of the class. I think it would be a good way to wrap things up.
We've spent quite a bit of time in class deciding what categories or genres pieces of literature fall into, and sometimes what pieces fall into multiple categories. Pick a piece that you feel falls into more than one category and state your argument for why it belongs in each.
"The Sublime" is clearly one of the key terms for this course. Define "The Sublime" and illustrate how it made away into giving certain types of authors who weren't previously considered an opportunity to be heard, and how the sublime factors into their work, paying attention to the actual texts.
(I'm not the best question writer, but my point is to try to prompt a synthesis about how "The Sublime" gives way to the acceptance of the Women and Black authors we've seen in the course. )
Provide your own mapping experience of the later C18 in both words and visual examples. Be sure to trace through the themes relating texts from class to them as you go. Show how and why these works fit into the period and what they provide to the over arching concept of the later c18
Compare the rhetorical styles of 18c literature to that of the 19th and 20th centuries. How has the intent of authors and the community of readers changed?
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