How are women and women's bodies portrayed in Wyatt's "Whoso List to Hunt"?
One Petrarchan scholar wrote that Petrarch's poems were no more than "a great fiction to compensate for a real state of affairs in which it was a man's world and a violent one at that." Do you consider this fiction an adequate compensation? To what extent do you think this fiction served to alleviate or aggravate the real state of affairs? Re-read the second selection from Frazier's Golden Bough. How would you interpret the significance of the beheading in King Arthur's court in light of this passage?
You may also want to consider the suggestion that the whole scene in Arthur's court is the product of a preordained ritual. Consider Arthur's response to the Green Knight and Sir Gawain's reaction to Arthur's response. What about the text suggests that their words and actions are scripted, part of a ritual rather than spontaneous? Analyze the changes that take place in Gawain's character: How does he change over the course of the narrative? What motivates those changes?
Is there some moral to this story? Explain one way in which one of the hunting scenes FAILS to correspond to Gawain's simultaneous interactions with Lady Bertilak.
Explore one way in which Gawain's interactions with Lady Bertilak reflect the ideals of courtly love.
Explain why you find Randall's, Speirs's or your own interpretation of the green knight's significance convincing. Provide a breif argument based on the details provided in the text. Be sure to cite stanza numbers.
Discuss the speaker's attitude in the following poem: The poem reveals the speaker's attitude toward what? What is the speaker's attitude? You must not wonder, though you think it strange, Give one specific example from the text and build an argument based on that example.
Discuss the structure of the following excerpt taken from cummings's six nonlectures : How is the excerpt structured? How does cummings use the structure of excerpt to reinforce or enhance its content? so many selves(so many fiends and gods ~ e e cummings Give one specific example from the excerpt and build an argument based on that example.
Discuss Hemmingway's use of patterns in "Soldier's Home." How does Hemmingway's use of patterns help to characterize Krebs? What do these patterns suggest about Krebs?
Use Cohen's first thesis to breifly explain the meaning of another monster from literature or film.
How does Milton portray Satan in a sympatehtic light? Give one specific example. Be sure to cite line numbers from the text.
Do you believe that this could have been unintentional as Blake seems to suggest? NOTE: On the issue of intentionality, see this related article. In class, we concluded that the invocation of the muse functions as the exposition of the epic. In what important ways does the invocation of the muse differ from a typical narrative exposition?
Do you think Beowulf should be categorized as an epic? Why? Or why not?
What struck you as an important element of Tolkien's argument? What stood out to you? What did you agree or disagree with?
Link to Beowulf E-text
READ sections 1-3 of the Beowulf e-text. Find one kenning. Analyze the kenning by breaking it down into an analogy. Breifly explain how this particular kenning is used to develop a particular theme, meaning or tone in the text. Explain the story of Cain and Abel in light of the idea that human beings were created in the image of God. What role does the divine image play in the story of Cain and Abel?
What stood out to you as an interesting or important detail of Trible's argument? What did you agree with? What did you disagree with?
Explain your perspective with relevant analysis of and argument from the text. LENGTH: 200-300 words. DUE: Monday, September 8, by 11:59 p.m. How does the purpose of the creation account in Genesis 1 compare to that of the creation account in Genesis 2?
Be sure to explain your understanding of the purpose of each text and how you reached that understanding. Compare the curses God places on the man and on the woman. How are they similar? How are they different?
Is God's judgement in Genesis 3 show partiality for one sex or the other? Is this narrative inherently misogynistic? Support your answer with relevant analysis of the text.
After finishing Riquelme's essay, "Oscar Wilde's Aesthetic Gothic," consider the similarities between Wilde's Picture and Austen's Northanger Abbey. Using Riquelme's essay as a critical lens, what thematic connections can you discern between these two (unconventional) Gothic novels?
In "Oscar Wilde's Aesthetic Gothic," Riquelme argues that, because of the doubling which take place in The Picture of Dorian Gray, "the reader is invited to feel implicated" (502).
How are readers implicated by the text? Implicated in what? What does the narrative invite readers to see or to examine about themselves? In "The Phenomenon of Aging," Ragland-Sullivan writes that, despite his verbal wit and his philosophical nihilism, Wilde never stopped asking society for forgiveness/love ~ p. 494 How is Dorian's identity similarly tied up in the gaze of the other?
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