Finial essay
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Finialessaypaper.docxPaper Two Essay Topics:
Before starting, remember that you are writing a research paper. That means, I expect to see, in addition to the primary work, references to at least four reliable, scholarly secondary sources about the work. Dictionary definitions, Wikipedia entries, quotes/paraphrases from Cliffnotes or Sparknotes, etc., are not scholarly and, therefore, do not fulfill your requirement of referring to at least four scholarly sources. I would suggest you start with the library’s subscription databases, such as Project Muse, etc. In addition, please make sure to follow MLA 8th edition rules for formatting the paper, including the list of Works Cited. Week Zero module contains MLA formatting and citation materials. The minimum word length of the paper is 1,500 words.
1. Like all great plays, Mother Courage instructs; like all great plays, its instruction flashes forth from a churning, disorienting action. Clarity is intended, but the confusion is no accident. In her blindness, Courage embodies an uncomfortably familiar modern disfigurement: a relationship to commodities, money and the marketplace that perverts human relationships and is ultimately inimical to life. And yet what else can she do? If she is oblivious to the consequences of hanging on, she is eagle-eyed about the consequences of losing what she has. She will not have to sell herself as long as she has boots, buckles, beer and black market bullets to sell instead. She isn't neglecting any plausible alternative. In choosing to write about a canteen woman trailing after armies in war-ravaged 17th-century Europe, Brecht precluded any other options from presenting themselves. If his formal inventions--the jarring succession of bluntly spliced juxtapositions, the epic chronological elisions and leaps, the probing of the social basis of character--invite us to adopt a stance of critical observation, do his choices of time, place and circumstance force us out of judgment and into empathy?
2. What is the significance of the phrase "Ou libéré?" which occurs a number of times in different contexts in Breath, Eyes, Memory?
3. What is the function of the folktales that are interwoven with the main narrative?
4. In what ways can Sebald's work be said to create a new genre? Do we know whether to take Austerlitz as fact or fiction? Why do you suppose Sebald incorporates photographs into his work? To what effect?
5. Various animals appear throughout Austerlitz. What does the novel make of the relationships between humans and other creatures, and between all animals–humans included–and their environment? How do animals in the novel orient themselves, and what does it mean, throughout, to become literally dis-oriented?
6. At the novel's end, Austerlitz tells the narrator of a Jewish cemetery located just behind his house in London, behind a wall, whose existence he'd only discovered during his last days in the city. How does the discovery of the cemetery replicate Austerlitz's discovery of his heritage, and what does this link suggest about the connection between physical artifacts and the workings of memory? In what way could it be said that this cemetery's presence in the novel honors the durability of the world of European Jewry that Nazi Germany attempted to expunge?
7. What could Kushner have meant in subtitling his work "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes"? What national themes might he be referring to? And what is the relationship between "gay" and "national" in the play?
8. As a "fantasia," Angels in America is a major departure from prevailing theatrical realism, with detours into the religious and the supernatural—angels, ghosts, apparitions and visions appear over and over. What effect do these fantastical elements have on the play as a whole? Go beyond a simple analysis of plot to consider the implications for characters, messages and themes.
Rubric
Paper Two
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Paper Two |
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Criteria |
Ratings |
Pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeIntroduction presents background, is interesting, and creates reader attention |
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30.0 pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeThe is a clearly articulated thesis in the introduction |
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20.0 pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeThe organization is clear and logical, including a carefully arrived at conclusion |
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80.0 pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeMLA formatting and documentation |
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40.0 pts |
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This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeGrammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. |
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30.0 pts |
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Total Points: 200.0 |
