Inter-Holiday Post

For starters, I hope you've had a relaxing and enjoyable break so far.  I think everyone needed to hit the PAUSE button for awhile.  But there is something to accomplish for everyone by next Monday, and there is also a suggestion for those who like to stay a step ahead of the game.

Topic generation--Ibsen and Chopin

Today's version is remarkably open-ended. After break, and after you get some individual feedback as well as some direct instruction regarding the last comparison/contrast, you will be writing a paper in which you will compare and contrast an element of your choice from the play and from the novel. You have to do something usefully "deep"--something that ultimately heightens our understanding (illuminates beyond what any reader would be expected to "get" right away). I am deliberately withholding examples or suggestions right now. You'll be getting some additional suggestions from me on Monday, but I want you to have an unbiased chance to generate some original ideas first.

You don't have to write five different thesis statements or five versions of a prospectus. Your job is simply to come up with 5 possible ideas written out in sentence form (1 sentence per idea) that will give the basic [whatevers] that could fruitfully be compared and contrasted.  At least two of your ideas need to be something completely unrelated to character--and any character comparison/contrasts need to be defined or shaped in some way that indicates depth.  For example, you cannot simply compare/contrast Nora and Edna, but you COULD examine their respective attitudes and relationships toward their children as part of some evaluative and illuminating claim.

Don't try to start that essay yet though . . . there will be some important qualifiers, expectations, etc., that you'll need to know about first.  Simply bring your list of five sentence-level ideas on Monday.

RE: Frankenstein

Remember that with HoD, I urged/required/sincerely hoped that you read the book once through before backing up to pore over shorter sections.  I'm not making that method a requirement with Frankenstein, but some students have found it to be both a more enjoyable and a more effective way to proceed.  Read it once as the suspenseful ghost story that Mary Shelley intended--then re-read for the scholarly and critical evaluation of particular themes, stylistic devices, and literary allusions (among other things).

Assuming that you at least start the book over break, DO NOT SLIGHT THE LETTERS AT THE BEGINNING.  In most editions, "Chapter 1" begins after the letters, and some readers make the (completely understandable) mistake of assuming that the novel begins with Chapter 1.  It doesn't.  Shelley's book is a "frame story" much like HoD; the initial narrator is writing letters to his sister, then we have Victor Frankenstein, and finally the Creature himself speaks.  (Then it's back to VF, and then the initial narrator.)  Without beginning with the frame story, an essential thematic element (probably THE most significant theme, in fact) is completely lost.  So definitely start at the very beginning ("a very good place to start").

The Week We Get Back

The first three days will be spent on writing-related activities; the only obligation that counts over break will be the five ideas described above.  For Frankenstein, you will need to have the Letters and Chapters 1-3 read by Thursday.