ENG140Y: Literature for our Time
Instructor: Ann-Barbara Graff
Office: Room 291
Office Hours: MWF 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Class Meeting Times: MWF 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Second Essay Topics
Choose one topic from the following list:
1. Wallace Stevens is a philosophical poet. Isolate and discuss one aspect of his philosophy (e.g., the temporal/transcient, perception, human logic) in TWO works from those on the syllabus.
2. Albert Camus argues that Sisyphus is a tragic (iconographic, modern) hero because he is "conscious [of]...the whole extent of his wretched condition" (Course Reader 408). With this formulation in mind, discuss T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Is J. Alfred another Sisyphus? Is he a tragic hero? Why is this a relevant question?
3. Discuss the ways by which Eliot achieves (or attempts to achieve) order, a sense of relation, unity despite the integral and discontinuous sequencing of The Waste Land.
4. Discuss the use of recurrent imagery and its thematic significance in The Waste Land or in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
5. Compare and contrast the ways in which time is figured in Eliot and Stevens.
This assignment is worth 10 % of your total grade. The essay must not be more than 1200 words (5 pages, typed, double-spaced) and should be handed in on or before Monday January 15, 2001.
Penalties for lateness: Extensions should not be asked for and will not be granted EXCEPT in cases of serious emergencies, e.g., medical crisis. Late essay will be penalized 5% per day (including weekends and holidays).
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Posted 28 November 2000