English 2122 critical responses, spring 2010

Note that critical response essays have a 200 word minimum and must be typed. Avoid plot summary or straightforward retelling of "what happens" in the work—see nugget 1.

Format your response according to MLA guidelines for margins, spacing, name, date, etc., headers, etc. as outlined on my "simple stuff" page. Works cited pages are unnecessary for critical responses. Even without works cited pages, do still follow the MLA conventions for documenting quotations as explained in QD1-4 on my quotes and documentation page.

3.1 Due Wednesday, April 28: Review the list of readings we've done this semester and in two or more paragraphs, offer your opinion on why any four of the works we've read are valuable reading for contemporary Americans these decades or even centuries later. That is, say how or why you think these four particular works contain relevance for modern readers beyond the simple fact of their presentation of different times in British history.

3.2 Due Tuesday, May 4, anytime by midnight: follow the link and be as helpfully critical as you can: critical feedback.

1.1 Due Monday, March 15: Address one option only, not both:
a) Compare and contrast Blake's conception of "innocence" and "experience." Give particular attention to the paired poems: the two "Introductions," "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," and the two "Chimney Sweepers." For the mechanics of citing poetry, see QD4.

b) Is Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman completely dated? Do some of her ideas still apply to women today? Quoting the text at least three times to support your claims, discuss the relevance of her argument to our contemporary society.

1.2 Due Wednesday, March 17: Address one option only, not both:
a) Discuss one or both: a) the importance of nature in Wordsworth's poetry; b) Wordsworth's treatment of "common" subjects; include at least three direct quotations in your discussion, following MLA guidelines for documenting poetry as outlined in QD4.

b) Respond to Coleridge's poetry in any way you want. If you're stuck, you might consider his similarities and differences vis-a-vis Wordsworth, or you could examine Coleridge's specific treatment of nature and compare it to Wordsworth's. For the mechanics of citing poetry, see QD4.

1.3 Due Monday, March 22: Address one option only, not both:
a) Open assignment: respond to anything in Shelley however you like. Only if you're really stuck: you might consider with which of the other Romantics Shelley seems to have the most in common—explain your choice in full. Include at least three direct quotations in your discussion, following MLA guidelines for documenting poetry as outlined in QD4.

b) How is Keats's poetry different from all the other poetry we've read thus far? How is Keats, along with Shelley one of the "second generation Romantics," similar to earlier Romantics? How is Keats "Romantic"? Include at least three direct quotations in your discussion, following MLA guidelines for documenting poetry as outlined in QD4.

1.4 Due Wednesday, March 24: Address one option only, not both:
a) A couple of possibilities (you may do one or both): 1) How do Carlyle's "yea" and "nay" still apply today? 2) How is Carlyle recognizably "Victorian"? How does he differ from the Romantics?

b) Open assignment on our reading from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh. Note whatever strikes you as interesting or significant, illustrating your claims with at least three quotations from the poem and following MLA guidelines for documenting poetry as outlined in QD4.

1.5 Due Monday, March 29: Address one option only, not both:
a) Discuss either 1) the theme of loss, or 2) Tennyson's portraits of women in any of Tennyson's poems. Support your observations with at least three quotations, following MLA guidelines for documenting poetry as outlined in QD4.

b) Characterize as fully as you can the personality of the speakers of any two of Browning's poems. Point to specific passages that lead you to discover what kinds of people these speakers are.

1.6 Due Wednesday, March 31: Open assignment on Matthew Arnold: point out and discuss anything that strikes you as analytically significant or interesting or noteworthy in any of the three Arnold poems we're reading. Include at least four quotations in your response; see MLA guidelines for documenting poetry outlined in QD4.

2.1 Due Monday, April 5: Discuss Dickens's presentation of childhood in the first installment of our Great Expectations reading. Where is he most and least successful in presenting how children do really think and feel? Explain, including quotations from at least three different chapters from different points in the reading (that is, avoid using quotes from just the first three or four chapters, e.g.).

2.2 Due Wednesday, April 7: How do Pip's improved "expectation" as a gentleman affect him? How does he change, and is it for the better or the worse? Discuss, including quotes from at least two different chapters in our second day's reading from Great Expectations reading.

2.3 Due Monday, April 12: Compare the two endings of Great Expectations and consider which seems more consistent with the novel's primary theme(s), with particular attention to the last third of the novel. Explain why you prefer one over the other, including at least two quotations to illustrate your claims.

2.4 Due Monday, April 19: Address one option only, not both:
a) Explore the imagery and symbolism of lightness and darkness in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. How is the "darkness" particularly "modern"? Include at least four quotations to illustrate your claims.

b) What does Shaw say in Mrs. Warren's Profession about "the modern woman"? Include at least three quotations to support your claims.

2.5 Due Wednesday, April 21: Address one option only, not both:
a) Explore the imagery and symbolism of lightness and darkness in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. How is the "darkness" particularly "modern"? Include at least four quotations to illustrate your claims.

b) Open assignment. Respond to Yeats's poetry however you like so long as you avoid simply summarizing what the poems say and so long as you as you include quotations from at least two different poems, at a minimum of two quotes from each poem you discuss.

2.6 Due Monday, April 26: Address one or two options only, not all three:
a) T. S. Eliot reportedly once said The Waste Land is not so much "an important bit of social criticism [as it is] the relief of a personal and wholly insignificant grouse against life; it is just a piece of rhythmical grumbling." If we believe this assertion, what is it specifically about life that Eliot finds to grouse and grumble against? On the other hand, how might the poem be seen as important social criticism?

b) Write a character analysis of J. Alfred Prufrock: quoting from the poem at least six times, say what kind of man he is, describe his personality.

c) Do both: 1) discuss the theme of entrapment in "Eveline" and "Araby," quoting each story at least once; 2) respond to the "Lestrygonians" chapter of Joyce's Ulysses: how is this chapter experimental? What is Joyce trying to accomplish here, and do you think he succeeds? Explain, quoting the text at least four times to illustrate your observations.