Requirements at a glance: 5-6 pages, typed, double-spaced Use a thesis statement to make an argument Use quotations in MLA style to support arguments No research First of all, I do not want any research or documentation for the paper. In fact, I am most interested in YOUR reading and interpretation of the text(s). The paper should be formal and demonstrate a careful analysis of the topic on which you choose to focus. Use an introduction and conclusion. Articulate and develop a thesis, using examples and quotations from the novel to support the thesis. Please use MLA internal citations: put the page numbers of quotations from the text in parentheses at the end of the sentence “like this” (335), act, scene and line numbers “like this” (II.3.150-156), or poetry line numbers “like this” (13-15). 1. Trace a theme through a text. For example, you might discuss whether or not Swift is satirizing men’s idealization of women in “The Lady’s Dressing Room.” You might discuss the way that Oroonoko treats “savagery” vs. “civilization.” You might discuss the use of satire in “A Modest Proposal”—the different social or cultural groups Swift is criticizing and why. Or what is the function of masquerade and costume in Fantomina? Or in The Vicar of Wakefield? You might also discuss formal or structural elements of a poem, essay, or novel. How does the ending fulfill the themes or structure of the text? Why does the text end the way it does? How do interpolated texts function in The Vicar of Wakefield? 2. Trace a specific kind of imagery through a text. You might try to connect the imagery to larger themes or the overall meaning of the text. For example, how does Anne Finch use nature imagery in “Nocturnal Reverie?” What about the scatological /graphic imagery in “The Lady’s Dressing Room”—what purpose does it serve? How does it connect to male attitudes towards women? What about the different costumes that Fantomina adopts in Haywood’s story? Or the imagery associated with death in Gray’s odes or elegies? What kinds of imagery are repeated in the text you’ve chosen? What imagery patterns are there? Why? 3. Compare and contrast two texts. For example, how do “Nocturnal Reverie” and “Description of a City Shower” use descriptions of nature for different purposes? You might compare Swift’s dressing room to the one in Pope’s “Rape of the Lock.” Or compare Fantomina’s masquerades to those in The Country Wife—are both equally transgressive? Does one author condemn masquerade more than the other? TEXT: The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Volume 3, The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, Broadview Press, 2nd edition
