English 4470 critical response topics, fall 2011

Note that critical response essays have a 250 word minimum and must be typed. Avoid plot summary or straightforward descriptive retelling of "what happens" in the work(s)—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—unless you are using editions of texts different from those listed on our syllabus, in which case a works cited page is required. 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 before the exam, Monday, December 12th: Review the list of poets we read in the second half of the semester and make a carefully reasoned case for the four poets you think it most important for me to include on this class's syllabus the next time I teach it.


On deck:

3.2 Due midnight Tuesday, December 13th: follow the link and be as helpfully critical as you can: critical feedback..


Previous critical response topics—no longer valid for submission.

1.1 Due Wednesday, August 17th: Keeping strictly within 250-400 words (not a one more!), give a straightforward and purely original definition of the term "literature": that is, without referring to any sources whatsoever, come up with your own working definition of literature. Basically, consider what it is that determines the generally accepted status of works by such writers as Shakespeare, Milton, Austen, Twain, Tolstoy, and T.S. Eliot as "literature"—as opposed to more purely "popular entertainment" we find in works by such writers as Agatha Christie, John Grisham, Danielle Steele, Stephen King, or any other best-selling authors of recent times not likely to be considered truly "literary." Restrict your definition to written texts as the fundamental literary artifacts (thus excluding films or even screenplays, e.g.), and feel free to bring in brief examples from any culture or period to illustrate your claims.

1.2 Due Monday, August 22nd: The stories we're reading for Monday all have a certain shock factor, something our culture seems to thrive on and cultivate, at least in our popular entertainment. To what extent do you think "The Toughest Indian in the World," "1-900," and "The Girl on the Plane" are simply cashing in on shock value for its own sake, or for purposes of making the stories striking, interesting, entertaining, etc.?  On the other hand, to what extent do you think each of these stories offers important insights about life, or the human condition, or the modern world, through the shocking material they present?

1.3 Due Wednesday, August 24th: Which of Wednesday's stories strikes you as most powerful? (The general level of "power" may be relative, but you do need to take a stand and choose one story over the other two.) Comment both on the strengths of the story you think is most powerful and on the qualities in the other two that keep them from achieving the same level of impact. Briefly, from your analysis try to formulate a short list of qualities short fiction should have to be most successful in impacting readers. Note that I am leaving the basis of the stories' power entirely up to you: you may focus on matters of plotting, characterization, theme, verisimilitude, timeliness or relevance, or any other significant criteria in your estimation.

1.4 Due Monday, August 29th: Discuss the authors' commentary on art, or the relationship between art and life, in "The Identity Club" and "The New Automaton Theater," including at least two quotes from each story to illustrate your claims.

1.5 Due Wednesday, August 31st: Open assignment on any one or more of Wednesday's stories. Discuss whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in the story or stories, taking care to avoid plot summary (nugget 1). Include at least three quotations to substantiate your claims.

1.6 Due Wednesday, September 7th: Choose one, do not address both:
a) For two of the three stories assigned for this day, discuss the stories' central "themes," or statements about life, including at least two quotations from each story to substantiate your claims.

b) Open assignment on any one or more of this day's stories. Discuss whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in the story or stories, taking care to avoid plot summary (
nugget 1). Include at least three quotations to substantiate your claims.

1.7 Due Monday, September 12th: How is Wideman's "Who Invented the Jump Shot?" an experimental story? What effects do you think Wideman attempts to achieve through the story's technical innovations in storytelling, and how successful do you think the story is as a whole? Include at least three quotations to illustrate your observations.

1.8 Due Monday, September 19th: Open assignment on either or both of our Tim O'Brien stories. Discuss whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in the story or stories, taking care to avoid plot summary (nugget 1). Include at least three quotations to substantiate your claims.

1.9 Due Wednesday, September 21st: Look back over the list of short fiction we've read this semester and consider which two or three stories you think most deserving of inclusion in a near-future anthology of literature, perhaps of the "introduction to literature" variety students might encounter in an English 1102 class.  Explain your choices, and you might also list a few "honorable mentions" if it's at all tough to narrow the list to just two.

1.10 Due Monday, September 26th: Write a brief character sketch of both the most and least sympathetic of the three central characters we meet in the opening stories in The Imperfectionists, Lloyd Burko, Arthur Gopal, and Hardy Benjamin. In addition to describing their personalities, explain why you sympathize with the one over the other two, and why you find the least sympathetic, well, uh, least sympathetic. Include two quotations, minimum, from at least two different stories.

1.11 Due Wednesday, September 28th: Open assignment.  Respond in whatever analytical fashion you like to either or both of the stories/chapters we're reading for Wednesday (focusing on Herman Cohen and Kathleen Solson): avoid plot summary, and include at least four quotations total.

1.12 Due Monday, October 3rd: Do both: a) Discuss the appearances of characters we have met already as central characters  of the first five stories in The Imperfectionists as they crop up again in the next three stories (pp. 131-200): how are these characters consistent with their earlier portrayals, or how do you now view them differently in their new contexts? and b) Respond to one or more of the three new central characters (Winston Cheung, Ruby Zaga, and Craig Menzies), considering particularly how your earlier impressions of them are borne out, contradicted, expanded upon, etc. INclude at least four quotations total in your discussion.

1.13 Due Wednesday, October 5th: Open assignment on the conclusion of The Imperfectionists. You might consider how the final chapters of the book give closure to the whole and/or serve to reinforce the collection of separate stories as one cohesive whole, but anything analytical and avoiding plot summary is fine. Include at least three quotations to illustrate your assertions.

2.1 Due Wednesday, October 12th: Discuss any three of the Plath poems in our Norton anthology that strike you as especially powerful. What are the predominant emotions each of the poems conveys, and how does she communicate them so directly and powerfully to the reader? Explain, including at least two quotations from each poem you address. See QD4 for the mechanics of quoting verse.

2.2 Due Monday, October 17th: Our Norton editors note that Allen Ginsberg strove "to compose poetry that invites a complete emotional and physical participation by the audience," and that Ginsberg "seemed to claim for poetry new areas of experience and new cultural situations."  Evaluate "Howl" and any two other Ginsberg poems in our text with these two assertions in mind: consider how his poetry a) encourages a fully engaged participation by the reader, on the one hand, and also b) embraces aspects of American life that might not have been considered worthy or appropriate in more conservative poetry from the mid-twentieth century.  Include at least two quotations from each poem you discuss. See QD4 for the mechanics of quoting verse.

2.3 Due Wednesday, October 19th: Open assignment on any two of the poems assigned for Wednesday. Avoid summarizing the poems, and include at least three quotations from each poem in your discussion.

2.4 Due Monday, October 24th: Write an in-depth analysis of two of the poems we're reading for Monday, one by Gwendolyn Brooks and one by either Delmore Schwartz or Muriel Rukeyser: explain what you see as the essential aim of each poem, and also explain how the poet goes about successfully accomplishing that aim.  Include at least three quotations from each poem you discuss.

2.5 Due Wednesday, October 26th: Open assignment on any two of the poems assigned for Wednesday. Avoid summarizing the poems, and include at least three quotations from each poem in your discussion.

2.6 Due Monday, October 31st: Choose one of the poems we're reading by Merrill or Sexton and prepare a "lesson plan" for how you would teach this poem to a class of exceptional high school seniors in an AP poetry class. You might do some quick research on the poet or the poem (using the Web is okay), though if you are confident in your interpretation of the poem, going purely "on your own" is fine, too. What would you want students to get from the poem? Which three or four passages would you focus on most closely, and why?

2.7 Due Wednesday, November 2nd: Choose one, do not address both:
a) Discuss the violence in Hughes's poetry. Include at least four quotations to support your assertions.

b) Discuss Ramanujan's observations on the complex nature of identity in any three poems we're reading, including at least two quotations from each.

2.8 Due Monday, November 7th: Open assignment on any two Adrienne Rich poems. Include at least three quotations from each poem you discuss.

2.9 Due Wednesday, November 9th: Open assignment on one Atwood poem and one by Simic. Include at least two quotations from each poem in your response.

2.10 Due Monday, November 14th: Open assignment on any two Rita Dove poems.  Include at least two quotations from each poem to illustrate your observations.

2.11 Due Wednesday, November 16th: Give a line-by-line close explication (interpretation and commentary) of either "Two Formal Elegies" or any of the "Mercian Hymns" at least ten lines in length.

2.12 Due Monday, November 28th: Choose one, do not address both:
a)
How are Bernstein's poems and Michael Palmer's "Sun" radically "avant-garde"? What makes the poems so difficult to read or understand, and what do you think any one or two of these poems is attempting to convey?  Explain, including at least four quotations to support your analysis.

b) Give a close explication, a line-by-line explanation, of Eavan Boland's "Anorexic."

2.13 Due Wednesday, November 30th: Choose one, do not address both:
a)
Discuss the commentary on Indian life or culture in any two Alexie poems, quoting each at least twice.

b) Open assignment on any one of the four poems assigned that are not by Sherman Alexie: respond to whatever strikes you as interesting, notable, or significant in the poem, and include at least three quotations in your discussion.

2.14 Due Monday, December 5th: Open assignment on any of the poems posted for this date that you have not already written a critical response on—include at least four quotations from the poem to illustrate your assertions.