Satan's Trouble With Eve

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Final Paper: Criteria & Revised Due Date

First off, as compensation for Wednesday's folder malfunction I am revising the due date for the Term paper to Friday April 14th. I will add an upate this effect to the syllabus: all other requirements are absolutely unchanged.

The topic for the paper is open, within the context of the primary texts, to allow you to engage with any particular aspect of the material that has captured your keenest interest. If you find yourself with several aspects of the material having equal claims on your interest, or if you are uncertain about the level of thesis suitable to an upper-division course, you might consider the topics following:

  1. Detail the characteristics of Seventeenth Century literature which give it a claim to uniqueness -- as you have come to understand it through our course engagement with the primary material. Use the summaries that I have posted here of the Century's literary features to guide your paper.
  2. Both Leviathan and Paradise Lost are absolutist literary texts: both are themed to capture the reader's affirmation entirely. Characteristically of the present century, many of you judge both texts' absolutisms to be discomfortable exclusion, yet are satisfied with elements of both texts. Argue, then, for a new literary whole that (a.) contains the parts of Leviathan or Paradise Lost with which you agree but (b.) cannot be contradicted by any of the remaining parts of your chosen text which you leave out of your whole.

By all means see me well ahead of the (now extended) deadline to confirm the suitability of your paper topic or to discuss an outline or draught of a thesis paragraph.

1 Comments:

  • Isn't April 14th Good Friday? Will the campus still be open?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:20 AM  

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