texts and criticism

1. What does Willis mean when she says at the beginning of her essay that historicist criticism “too often [characterizes literature as] passively repeat[ing] a single, all-consuming discourse”(322)? How, specifically, is her essay meant to challenge such a view of literature? 

2. According to Willis, in what ways do Antonio and Calian have similar functions in The Tempest?

3. How, specifically, do you think Paul Brown might defend his essay against Willis’s criticisms?

1. Why does Thompson think that she calls the “ideology of femininity”(405) is useful as a 

framework for exploring the character of Miranda?’

2. What, according to Thompson, are some of the specific differences between psychoanalytic 

and what she calls “political” interpretations of the play?

3. What conclusions does Thompson draw from her discussion of feminist criticism of The Tempest?