ESSAY NO. 2
Option 1: A four-page paper.
Option 2: A six-page paper.
Works covered: Inferno, Decameron, Essays, King Lear, Don Quixote.
Please write a well-organized essay on one of the topics below. Note that your paper must make an argument, not merely a series of observations; i.e., you must have a conclusion, and your conclusion must not be about "what happens" in the plots of your chosen works. Any paper in which plot summary occupies 25% or more of the word count will receive an automatic "F." Rather, you must address how the works are made, and how they create their meaning, in part, through their treatment of the themes you are discussing.
I strongly recommend that you email me a thesis statement outlining a tentative argument on your chosen topic before you commence work on your paper.
Suggested topics:
1. Read the Introduction to Day Six of the Decameron and analyze it (What is it doing there? What themes does it introduce and how are they handled? What is the symbolic meaning of this narrative? Is there a moral?). Then read the story that follows it (VI:1) and think about how the two work together. In what way(s) does VI:Intro prepare us for VI:1? What themes, meanings, implications become apparent when we read the two together that might not be so clear if we read VI:1 by itself? Finally, read Don Quixote, pp. 152-156 (" 'There's no need to weep'…attempt that perilous adventure"). Compare the two excerpts (Dec. VI:Intro-1 and DQ pp152-6), draw some interesting conclusions, then write a paper about your findings.
2. Skim Canto XXXIII of the Inferno and then read Decameron VIII:7 (the scholar and the widow). Analyze the latter story in terms of "pity" and "desire," "life"and "literature," making reference to Dante and/or Augustine where necessary. How does Boccaccio transform these ideas that were central to the Inferno and the Confessions? Don't forget to take into account the potential ironic distance created by the narrative "layering" (i.e. "Boccaccio" says that Pampinea said…).
3. Examine the figure of Odysseus/Ulysses, as he is presented and re-presented by Homer (Odyssey), Vergil, and Dante. What aspects of "the human condition" is he made to represent/embody/assume/stand trial for? What special philosophical, literary, and/or ethical problems are addressed by each poet through his treatment of Odysseus/Ulysses?
4. Compare Montaigne's "On Idleness" with the "Prologue" of Don Quixote (Part I) in such a way as to end up saying something interesting about both works.
5. Discuss the theme of madness in King Lear and Don Quixote.
6. Discuss the theme of knowledge in the Essays and King Lear. (What can be known? How do we know? To what authority can/do we repair to check the validity of our knowledge? etc.)
7. Discuss the relationship of "language" to "reality" in any two of the texts (Inferno, Decameron, Essays, King Lear, Don Quixote.).
8. Write on a topic of your own choosing, as long as you address TWO of the above texts (it's okay to address them disproportionately, i.e. to devote most of your paper to discussing one of the two). If you choose this option, make sure you run your topic by me first.
Remember,
- Give your paper an appropriate title.
- Number your pages after page one, and staple them together.
- Spellcheck and proofread.
- Documentation: Do not use any secondary sources. For quotations from the works we have read, use in-text parenthetical documentation, as follows: (V:31) for the Inferno; (p. 31) for the Decameron, the Essays, or Don Quixote; (I.i.126) for King Lear.
This essay is due at noon on Monday, April 8, to my mailbox in 708 Hamilton.
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