English 3700 critical responses, fall 2016

Note that critical response essays have a 250 word minimum and must be typed and turned in printed in hard copy: responses shorter than 250 words will not pass. 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. Note that I will not accept critical responses that have any errors in document formatting: responses submitted with any "simple stuff" errors in formatting will be returned to you ungraded, and you will have to fix the errors and resubmit your work to get credit for it. Works cited pages are unnecessary for critical responses unless you are using an edition of the novel other than the one ordered for the class and listed on the syllabus. Even without works cited pages, do still follow the MLA conventions for documenting quotations as explained in Q1-3 on my quotations page.

3.2 Due Tuesday, December 13 at 9:00 a.m.: Complete the semester-end survey in our class D2L: click on "surveys" via the "course tools" tab or follow the link in the calendar widget on the course's homepage.

1.1 Due Thursday, August 18 (Cochran only): choose one, do not address both:
a) Discuss the most striking formal, technical features that "date" Moll Flanders. That is, aside from matters of content and fundamental differences in language between 18th-century English and our American English of the 21st century, how is Moll Flanders different from most contemporary fiction? Include at least three quotations to illustrate your observations.

b) Analyze Defoe's portrayal of a credible, believable world peopled by credible, believable characters in the book's first seventy-five pages. Include at least three quotations to illustrate your claims.

1.2 Due Tuesday, August 23 (Macon only): Some fiction is concerned primarily with external description of characters, places, events, etc. (action and adventure novels, for instance); at the other extreme is fiction dealing more exclusively with the internal psychology of the main character(s). Is Moll Flanders more internal or external in orientation? Quote three or more passages from our reading (pp. 74-160) to support your claims.

1.3 Due Thursday, August 25 (Cochran only): Consider Moll's resolution at the end of the novel, that she and her husband will spend the rest of their lives in "Sincere Penitence, for the wicked Lives we have lived." Do you believe Moll's contrition is genuine? Why, or why not? Further, does Defoe seem ultimately more concerned with moral instruction truly, or with tantalizing sensationalism that may help book sales? Explain.

1.4 Due Tuesday, August 30 (Macon only): Which character or characters do you find most interesting in the first quarter of Pride and Prejudice? Do you care about Austen's character(s) more or less than you did Defoe's Moll Flanders? Why? How is Austen different from Defoe in presentation of character? Explain, quoting from at least three separate chapters to illustrate your claims.

1.5 Due Thursday, September 1 (Cochran only): Choose one—do not address both:
a) Discuss two specific moments of "crisis" or "dramatic complication," points where we might say "the plot thickens," in Pride and Prejudice's chapters 18-34. Describe exactly what the complication is and explain how it pulls the reader deeper into the story. Include at least one quotation from each situation to illustrate your observations.

b) Focusing only on chapters 18-34, discuss Austen's satire, her mockery of specific situations, characters, or character-types. Quote from these chapters at least three times to illustrate your claims.

1.6 Due Tuesday, September 6 (Macon only): Choose one—do not address both:
a) Open assignment on chapters 35-47 of Pride and Prejudice. Discuss whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in these chapters. Avoid plot summary (nugget 1), and include at least three quotations to substantiate your claims.

b) Discuss Elizabeth's and/or Darcy's maturation or growth following Darcy's rejected proposal of marriage. What important lessons does either or both learn, and how are these lessons likely to change their characters? You might also discuss growth or significant positive change in other characters as well. Include at least three quotations to illustrate your claims.

1.7 Due Friday, September 9 (Cochran only): Choose one—do not address both:
a) Point out and discuss any two passages of a paragraph or more in length from the novel's last twelve or thirteen chapters that are particularly significant in illuminating or illustrating important aspects of the personality of any two of the following: any member(s) of the Bennet family, Darcy, Lady Catherine, or any of the Bingley bunch. Explain what important insights into each character the different passages reveal.

b) Aside from the specific lesson she learns about making snap judgments of men, how is Elizabeth a changed woman by the novel's end? Discuss, including at least three quotations to support your claims.

1.8 Due Tuesday, September 13 (Macon only): Choose one—do not address both:
a) As Robert Garis notes of Dickens's characteristic style of narration in The Dickens Theatre, “There is the constant and overt intention to dazzle us with verbal devices, leading us through our impulse to applaud to a continual awareness of the artificer responsible, a self-exhibiting master of language” (24). Point out and examine different passages from at least three different chapters in our first installment of Dombey and Son that seem especially to bear out Garis's contention. That is, identify and comment on passages in three third-person chapters where the narrator seems especially "dazzling" in verbal virtuosity, effectively "showing off" and drawing attention to the narrator's intrusive presence in the text.

b) Point out and discuss three strikingly eccentric characters in the first 133 pages of Dombey and Son, attending particularly to how they are either humorous (what makes them so funny?) and/or satirical (what does Dickens seem to mock or criticize in them?). Include at least one quotation to illustrate your claims on each, and feel free to bring in more.

1.9 Due Friday, September 16 (Cochran only): Choose one—do not address both:
a) As Robert Garis notes of Dickens's characteristic style of narration in The Dickens Theatre, “There is the constant and overt intention to dazzle us with verbal devices, leading us through our impulse to applaud to a continual awareness of the artificer responsible, a self-exhibiting master of language” (24). Point out and examine different passages from at least three different chapters in our second installment of Dombey and Son that seem especially to bear out Garis's contention. That is, identify and comment on passages in three third-person chapters where the narrator seems especially "dazzling" in verbal virtuosity, effectively "showing off" and drawing attention to the narrator's intrusive presence in the text.

b) Point out and discuss three strikingly eccentric characters we encounter in chapters 10-20 of Dombey and Son, attending particularly to how they are either humorous (what makes them so funny?) and/or satirical (what does Dickens seem to mock or criticize in them?). Include at least one quotation to illustrate your claims on each, and feel free to bring in more.

1.10 Due Tuesday, September 20 (Macon only): One of the key features of melodrama is characters being drawn in extremes of either "good" or "evil" (not necessarily in any biblical sense, but bad or villainous). Give an in-depth analysis of any specific scene from chapters 21-29 in which one or more characters fit these extremes of being too good to be credible, really, or too patently villainous. Explain how the character or characters of interest are over the top to the point of being melodramatic. Include at least three quotations from this day's reading to support your claims.

1.11 Due Thursday, September 22 (Cochran only): Open assignment on any two chapters of this day's reading (chapters 31-40): respond analytically to anything that strikes you as interesting or significant or intriguing, including at least two quotations from each chapter you discuss.

1.12 Due Tuesday, September 27 (Macon only): Open assignment on any two chapters of this day's reading (chapters 41-52): respond analytically to anything that strikes you as interesting or significant or intriguing, including at least two quotations from each chapter you discuss.

1.13 Due Thursday, September 29 (Cochran only): Examine the novel's conclusion, considering especially whether, or how, Dickens brings successful closure to the narrative in terms both of its plot and its delivery of particular themes (i.e. its "message" on subjects such as pride, familial relations, etc.). Include at least three quotations in your analysis.

2.1 Due Thursday, October 6 (Cochran only): Read my "Flaubert overview" page and then explore facets of Flaubert's great realism in our first installment of Madame Bovary. How does this novel seem far more modern, more like novels written today, than all of the others we've read thus far? Quote the text at least three times to illustrate your claims.

2.2 Due Tuesday, October 11 (Macon only): Discuss Emma's relationships with Léon and Rodolphe: what does she find appealing about each of these men, and then what goes wrong in each relationship? What sort of "message" or statement about life does Flaubert seem to be delivering through Emma's involvement with both men? Quote from at least three different chapters to support your observations.

2.3 Due Thursday, October 13: Open assignment: respond to the conclusion of Madame Bovary in whatever analytical fashion you like (avoiding plot summary, of course). Explore whatever issues or story elements seem most interesting or important as the novel winds to a close. Include at least three quotations in your discussion.

2.4 Due Tuesday, October 18: Open assignment: what strikes you as significant, notable, or interesting in our first installment of Crime and Punishment? As always, be careful to avoid plot summary, and include at least three quotations to illustrate your observations.

2.5 Due Thursday, October 20: Find brief passages from three separate chapters in Part II of the novel that reveal significantly different facets or aspects of Raskolnikov's feelings of guilt. Quote each passage and then explain how each reveals different insights into Dostoyevsky's understanding of fundamental human psychology.

2.6 Due Tuesday, October 25: Choose one—do not address both:
a) Discuss Raskolnikov's first meeting with Porfiry Petrovich: avoiding plot summary, of course, point out whatever strikes you as interesting or significant about either character here, including at least three quotations to illustrate your claims. You might, if you prefer, focus narrowly on Raskolnikov's published theory.

b) Sonia and Svidrigailov are often considered symbolic characters. What do you make of these two characters as we come to know them in Parts III and IV of the novel? Include at least one quotation re: Sonia and two re: Svidrigailov to support your analysis.

2.7 Due Thursday, October 27: Raskolnikov, Luzhin, and Svidrigailov are all morally depraved in different ways. Discuss this assertion, and explain which character you think is most despicable and why. Include at least three quotations to substantiate your claims.

2.8 Due Tuesday, November 1: Respond to the Epilogue: how is the novel's ending satisfying? How is it unsatisfying? Is the ending consistent with the rest of the novel? Explain, including at least two quotations to support your observations.

2.9 Due Thursday, November 3: Open assignment on the first third of Tess of the D'Urbervilles: comment on any matters that strike you as interesting or significant in at least three different chapters. You might consider how this novel is notably different from all those we've read thus far, but any analytical topic is fair game. Include at least one quotation from each chapter you discuss.

2.10 Due Tuesday, November 8: Explore the opposing matters of Tess's guilt and innocence in the second installment of the novel, including quotations from at least three different chapters, at least one before the marriage and at least one after it.

2.11 Due Thursday, November 10: Respond to the novel's conclusion: what, ultimately, does Hardy say about the nature of justice in his society? Include quotations from at least three different chapters from late in the novel.

2.12 Due Tuesday, November 15: Explore different observations O'Brien makes on war, or the experiences of combat soldiers, in any two of the first nine stories in The Things They Carried (pp. 1-116). Include at least two quotations from each story you discuss.

2.13 Due Thursday, November 17: Only after reading to the very last page, consider whether The Things They Carried can be considered a novel, or is it really just a collection of short stories? Explore both sides of the question.

2.14 Due Tuesday, November 29: Open assignment on the first half of Beloved. Avoid plot summary, and discuss anything that strikes you as interesting or important in this reading. Include at least three quotations to illustrate your analysis.

2.15 Due Thursday, December 1: Discuss different impacts of Beloved on two of these three characters in the latter half of Morrison's novel: Sethe, Denver, and Paul D. Include at least four quotations to support your observations.

3.1 Due at the start of the final exam Thursday, December 8: Review the list of novels we've read, and in separate paragraphs carefully explain which three you think are most significant in demonstrating the novel's bottom-line criterion of presenting "truth" through an extended narrative. You may find it helpful to refer to the "What Is Fiction?" page from our first week of class.