ENGL 1005: Love and Hate (WEB)
Essay
Guidelines and Suggestions
This assignment is to write an essay on one of the topics listed on the following pages. The essay should be approximately 1000-1500 words. In one of the lectures, I’ve outlined the components of a compelling and convincing scholarly essay, but (for now) a few reminders might be helpful.
- Be sure that the thesis statement is clear and succinct; it should also offer an argument about the chosen topic.
- Remember that the thesis statement should either contain or be connected with sentences or phrases that act as a table of contents for your essay and explain how the essay will make its argument.
- Make certain that the body follows the direction set out by the thesis statement.
- Introduce each section of the essay’s argument with a topic sentence that tells the reader where he or she will be going next; a good topic sentence articulates the central idea of that section of the argument.
- Offer textual evidence and analysis to support each section of the essay’s argument.
- Provide logical or helpful transitions between pieces of textual evidence and analysis. Try to use phrases such as “for instance,” “for example,” “furthermore,” and “most importantly.”
- Adhere to MLA form and formatting: for instance, one inch margins, 12 point font, double-spaced text.
- Remember to edit your essay for spelling and grammar mistakes, typos, and awkward and unclear phrases. An excellent essay is also a polished outline.
- If your essay addresses a topic similar to one covered in lecture or on the discussion boards, figure out a way to go beyond the ideas already there. Consider formulating a different argument; or present and analyze different evidence. Good essays (B-level and above) will go beyond material already covered.
Keep a copy of the essay. For whatever reason, if it goes missing, you will then be able to provide a back-up copy.
Please see the syllabus for late policy and extensions.
The essay is due June 3, 2019 at noon. Please submit it on our Blackboard site. If you’d like to submit an outline of your essay (thesis statement, topic sentences, evidence), then please do so by May 27 at noon. That outline is completely voluntary; it is not required. It’s just a way for me to offer some guidance before the essay is submitted.
Topics
- In the Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton says that the lesson of Romeo and Juliet is that “Hee that runnes headlong from the top of a rocke, is not in so bad a case, as hee that falls into this gulfe of Loue.” To what degree is he right?
- In what ways is “Bluebeard’s Egg” a feminist text?
- What is the relationship between McGimpsey’s poem and Shakespeare’s sonnets (especially 18 and/or 116)?
- Discuss the significance of euphemism, metaphor, simile, and innuendo in “Brokeback Mountain.” As you prepare the essay, you might follow these steps: define the relevant terms, catalogue examples, and then think about how they help to formulate the story’s rendition of gay love?
- Think of “Brokeback Mountain” as an elegy. Jack Twist dies; but to what extent and/or in what ways does Ennis find consolation? How does that consolation help to formulate the story’s rendition of love?
- Discuss the significance of Jerry’s story about the dog in “The Zoo Story.” How does it (Jerry’s story) relate to the rest of the play?
- Consider Rosemary Moore’s rendition of “The Bloody Chamber.” To what extent is she right about Carter’s story.
- What is the significance of memory in “The Bloody Chamber”?
- What is the relationship between love and violence in “The Zoo Story” or Frankenstein?
- What is the relationship between Frankenstein and “Hairball.” How does thinking about Frankenstein as an intertext for “Hairball,” clarify the short story’s definition of the after-effects of love?
- To what extent does the literature suggest that love requires possession? Be sure to discuss at least two different texts in your essay.
- What is the version of love in Guthrie’s poem?
- In what way is Frankenstein a story about parenting?
- To what extent does love conquer all in The Road?
- How does this literature discuss the challenge of writing about love? Be sure to discuss at least two different texts in your essay.
- What is the relationship between love and hate in this literature? Be sure to discuss at least two different texts in your essay.
- In what ways is “The Zoo Story” about love?
- Jason Wilson argues that the most important person in any Neruda love poem is not the lover, but the loved one (i.e., the person the poem is about). To what extent is that true in the poems from this course?
- Select one or two poems and discuss its rendition of the relationship between art and children.
- Here is what Anne Carson says about love: “If we follow the trajectory of eros we consistently find it tracing out this same route: it moves out from the lover toward the beloved, then ricochets back to the lover himself and the hole in him, unnoticed before. Who is the real subject of most love poems? Not the beloved. It is that hole.” Choose one or two poems and determine how well Carson’s hypothesis explains them.
- What is the significance of money in Romeo and Juliet?
- Choose two elegies about children; to what extent is there compensation for their loss?
- Create your own topic. Check it with me one week before the essay is due.