MAJOR WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
The following major writing assignments will be supplemented by unannounced, timed (40 min.) AP-style essays throughout each quarter.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail Essay
Definitions: Both PARODY and BURLESQUE imitate another text with the intention of producing a comic effect. However, Harmon’s A Handbook to Literature makes the following distinction:
in order to discover what each scene does with SUBJECT and STYLE. Compare what you find to the SUBJECT and STYLE of original texts such as “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” and Le Morte d'Arthur.
Script Critique
Three to four-page critique of the author's manipulation of genre and conventions.
Choose any one (1) of the following plays:
ELIZABETHAN
Poetry Analysis
Three to five-page close-reading of any poem -- that we have NOT studied in class -- by any British poet of literary merit. The focus of this analysis should be on form and its relation to meaning.
This assignment requires that you situate your OWN analysis within an existing critical context. In other words, you will need to cite and respond to 2-3 published literary critics who have done work relevant to your topic.
Monster Novel Project
Eight to ten-page critical essay that looks at the evolution of any one of the following creatures (vampire, werewolf or zombie) by conducting an extensive comparison between a classic monster novel and any recent appearance of the myth in modern media, including novels, graphic novels, podcasts, webisodes, television series or film.
Choose any one (1) of the following classic monster novels:
This assignment requires that you situate your OWN analysis within an existing critical context by citing and responding to a minimum of three (3) published literary critics who have done work relevant to your topic.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail Essay
Definitions: Both PARODY and BURLESQUE imitate another text with the intention of producing a comic effect. However, Harmon’s A Handbook to Literature makes the following distinction:
- Parody retains more or less the exact STYLE of the original work while “lowering or debasing the SUBJECT.”
- Burlesque retains more or less the exact SUBJECT of the original work while “lowering or debasing the STYLE.”
in order to discover what each scene does with SUBJECT and STYLE. Compare what you find to the SUBJECT and STYLE of original texts such as “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” and Le Morte d'Arthur.
Script Critique
Three to four-page critique of the author's manipulation of genre and conventions.
Choose any one (1) of the following plays:
ELIZABETHAN
- The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare
- King Lear by Shakespeare
- Othello by Shakespeare
- Volpone; or the Fox by Ben Jonson
- The Country Wife by William Wycherley
- The Man of Mode by George Etherege
- The Way of the World by William Congreve
- The Conscious Lovers by Richard Steele
- The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Poetry Analysis
Three to five-page close-reading of any poem -- that we have NOT studied in class -- by any British poet of literary merit. The focus of this analysis should be on form and its relation to meaning.
This assignment requires that you situate your OWN analysis within an existing critical context. In other words, you will need to cite and respond to 2-3 published literary critics who have done work relevant to your topic.
Monster Novel Project
Eight to ten-page critical essay that looks at the evolution of any one of the following creatures (vampire, werewolf or zombie) by conducting an extensive comparison between a classic monster novel and any recent appearance of the myth in modern media, including novels, graphic novels, podcasts, webisodes, television series or film.
Choose any one (1) of the following classic monster novels:
- ZOMBIE -- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
- VAMPIRE -- Bram Stoker's Dracula
- WEREWOLF -- Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
This assignment requires that you situate your OWN analysis within an existing critical context by citing and responding to a minimum of three (3) published literary critics who have done work relevant to your topic.