For Lady Hawkins Ph.D only

Length: approximately 500 words

Format: MLA style

For this assignment, you may work with the same topic you have chosen for your research essay due on 10/14, but you don’t have to. Please focus on the possibilities below (and the ones on Possibilities for the Research Essay handout). These are only suggestions. If you have a different idea, please share it with me. If it has merit, I’ll approve it.

SOME POSSIBILITIES

A. Describe how the circumstances of the life of an author or poet influenced the content of his or her literature. Such an essay should NOT include lengthy biography. You should mention biographical details only if you show how they are related to the literature. For example, you could write about how the emotions of a doomed John Keats are reflected in his poetry, or how the abandonment felt by Poe due to the loss he suffered in his life surfaces in his poetry and/or stories.

B. Compare and contrast two or more literary artists’ approaches to a certain topic or theme

(for example, their approach to aspects of war, poverty, racism, etc.).

C. Describe how the poetry or fiction of an author or poet indicates his or her state of mind or psychological orientation (for example, how the poetry of Emily Dickinson or Sylvia Plath reflects a certain psychological disposition or orientation).

D. Describe how the characteristics of a certain literary or historical movement or era are apparent in the work of an author or poet (for example, how the poetry of William Blake foreshadows the tendencies of the Romantic Age, how the poetry of John Keats directly reflects those tendencies, or how the poetry of Langston Hughes reflects the characteristics of expression during the “Harlem Renaissance”).

E. Describe how the stories or poems of an author or poet coalesce to present a certain view of society or human nature (for example, how “The Lottery” reflects Shirley Jackson’s ideas about human nature or “civilization”).

THE DIFFERENCE

This assignment is different. The difference involves a requirement to include one statement directly quoted from a literary critic. Try to make sure that the statement fits the point you are making. Introduce the statement with a signal phrase, and identify the critical source on your Works Cited page in proper MLA format. Except for the one statement from a literary critic, the paper should be ENTIRELY IN YOUR OWN WORDS.