ESSAY 2

LITERARY ANALYSIS

Directions:

Please choose one of the following essay topics and write a five -page essay in which you use not only the primary text (s),but also at least three additional literary criticism sources.DO NOT GOOGLE, which includes Schmoop or anything else that pops up when you fail to conduct the proper research for literary criticism essays.Use the UIW databases, for which you are paying; the best ones for this essay are MLA International Bibliography and Academic Search Complete.

THIS ESSAY IS DUE NO LATER THAN MIDNIGHT ON SUNDAY, MAY 3.

• In both short stories, “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver and ‘The Blind Man” by D. H. Lawrence, major themes are seeing on various levels as well as the often-underestimated sense of touch.Discuss one or both these themes as explored in these stories.What truths are the authors trying to convey regarding the power of the imagination as a way of seeing?About simple human touch being a meansto psychological and spiritual depths?
• Both “The Blind Man” by D. H. Lawrence and “The Izu Dancer” by Yasunari Kawabata are Modernist works.Analyze ways (you choose) in which each of these exemplify Modernism.Which characteristics of this experimental movement in the arts do they explore?Possible choices are homophobia, classism, effects of WWI, and especially exploration of the inner psyches of individual characters.How did each of these essays break new ground?How did they respond to the radical changes that the 20^th century wrought in human life?
• Write an essay in which you explore the theme of family and its unshakeable bonds (for good or ill) in the poetry of Sharon Olds.Feel free to use the three poems we read: “First Thanksgiving,” “His Stillness,” and “I Go Back to May, 1937”; there are, however, many others she has written about her children, husband, parents.This essay will require close reading of the poems themselves to exploreyour thesis as well as ideas of literary critics.
• Using feminist criticism, analyze “Minutes of Glory” by Thiong’o as a work that explores the destructive power of the commodification of women, specifically in colonial Kenya.Which facets of British domination were particularly damaging to those women who were caught up in the new culture which oppressed them?Use the primary text extensively to build your argument as well asideas of critics.
• “Old Chief Mshlanga,” by D. Lessing and ‘Minutes of Glory” by Thiong’o are examples of post-colonial literature.First, define what post-colonial literature is, and then deconstruct these stories as examples of the genre, one from a colonialist perspective inRhodesia, and the other from the perspective of the colonized in Kenya,both British-controlled.How do these stories explore power and its often corrosive manifestations?
• You may come up with your own topic, but it must be approved by me.For example, you could explore Blake’s poetry or that of another poet,two or three short stories in James Joyce’s Dubliners, of which “Eveline” is one, or a theme(s) in “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison.